Charmed: Hanging with Mr Turner
by Lord umbrex
Summary: AU After Season six- The new Headmistress of magical school has hired a new teacher, one that the Halliwells know all too well. The last they heard about him was that he was vanquished, but he suprisingly still lives somehow. Now, the sisters must investigate to see what this new teacher's plans are. Are they good? Or is there an ulterior motive here? And just what is he, anyhow?
1. First Day of Class

**Charmed: Hanging with Mr. Turner**

Disclaimer: I don't own charmed, but the WB does.

Summary: AU After Season six- After Gideon's death, Leo has taken over his position as guardian of the school but has hired a headmistress to handle all school matters. When the headmistress hires a familiar new teacher, the Halliwells must investigate to see what this new teacher's plans are. Are they good? Or is there an ulterior motive here?

A/N: Just a quick story based around plots that I have written over the last few years, which are mostly about Cole and Phoebe. Review and tell me what you think!

**Chapter 1: The First Day of Class**

The Elder Leo Wyatt orbed into the Halliwell manor one night, a pensive expression on his face when he arrived. Hearing voices coming from the kitchen, he walked in to find Phoebe and Piper sitting at the table, chatting about nothing in particular as they both fed Chris and Wyatt. "Leo!" Phoebe grinned, looking up at her brother-in-law after finishing feeding Wyatt his carrots.

"Hey Phoebe," Leo replied quietly, kissing the tops of his boys' heads. He grabbed a napkin and wiped Wyatt's face, making the boy squirm in his booster chair.

"Is there something wrong?" Piper questioned, noticing his demeanor—it wasn't the happy one that he usually had upon seeing Wyatt and Chris. Leo was an optimistic and cheerful person, and only rarely did he get lost in his thoughts, instead focusing on the good in life, but she could tell that something was weighing his mind down.

"Wrong?" Leo weighed, moving his gaze over to his wife and taking a seat opposite her. "No, not necessarily, I don't think."

"What is it?" Phoebe asked tentatively, getting worried that the Elders had levied further punishment on Leo. Due to Leo's killing of Gideon, he was nearly stripped of his Elder duties and returned to whitelighter status, but instead the Elders had put him on probation and made him guardian of the magic school, as well as gave him the obligation to resume his role as the guardian angel of the Charmed Ones, which was not a punishment in Leo's opinion. Effectively, it made him a whitelighter with Elder powers and abilities until the other Elders decided on a more suitable punishment for him.

"The new headmistress at magic school hired a new teacher to teach demonology to the seniors today." Leo answered, looking over to Phoebe, knowing that the information would affect her most. "I may have given her complete authority on school related matters, but I'm still involved enough to know who she hires."

"And what, you don't want high school students to learn about demonology?" Phoebe asked, raising a questioning eyebrow, wondering what the problem was.

"No, that's not it; it's a really helpful course, actually." Leo informed the sisters, appreciating the useful nature of the class. "It teaches them a lot, allows them to understand what they may be fighting against when they graduate."

"Then…?" Piper prodded, wanting to know what Leo knew.

"It's who she hired," Leo explained, biting his lip, clearly struggling to explain himself. Truthfully, he was in a state of shock, and didn't really know how to handle telling the sisters the information he had.

"Who?" Phoebe and Piper both asked as the same time, each curious on whom Leo was talking about and why it was such a concern.

Leo looked over to Phoebe, wanting to see her expression as he said the name. "Cole."

"Cole Turner?" Phoebe gasped, her eyes going wide in shock. "You mean my Cole Turner? You mean as in my ex-husband, that Cole Turner? You mean the demon that nearly ruined my life, that Cole Turner? Surely you don't mean that Cole Turner." Phoebe laughed, as if Leo was telling her a bad joke, one that had a punch line of Cole being dead.

"Yes," Leo nodded in the affirmative, wanting to convey to Phoebe that he wasn't joking.

"Isn't he dead, Leo?" Piper questioned, seeing the horrified look on Phoebe's face. Her sister opened and closed her mouth a few times, clearly at a loss for words.

"Apparently not," Leo answered solemnly, not knowing anything more than that. "His first class is this Friday at 4:00."

"Is the headmistress insane or something?" Phoebe spat, entirely confused by the sudden turn of events. She had believed that Cole was dead for over a year and a half, to know that he was actually still alive was sickening to her. "Letting a killer like Cole Turner into the school to teach children is absolutely insane."

"If he had evil intentions or thoughts, he wouldn't even be able to get into the school, let alone be hired." Leo replied, though he didn't seem to fully believe what he was saying himself. "The protection on the school assures that."

"The universe hates me," Phoebe sighed, plopping her head into her arms, not wanting to think about Cole Turner for another second. She hadn't thought about him since her last visit to his penthouse on his birthday, and her life was the better for it.

At 4:00 o'clock that Friday, the Charmed Ones and Leo all funneled into the back of the class, using Leo's clout as the Elder guardian of the school to attend. They intended on seeing what Cole Turner was doing in the magic school, and more importantly, ask him the questions that each of them had for him. Just before 4, the class settled into their seats and the students were waiting for Cole when he walked through the door with a bag over his shoulder, a wide smile on his handsome face.

He was wearing a black suit, with a white shirt and a sharp tie, disregarding the robes that many other professors wore. He was clean shaven and looked the same as he did when he was in their lives, save perhaps his hair, which was lighter and straighter, but other than that, he was exactly as they remembered him. His blue gaze moved over each and every student, giving them all a smile to ease their nerves, before he saw the Halliwells in the back. His eyes met with Phoebe's for a second and his smile faltered almost unnoticeably as a result, before he turned around, placed his bag on the desk and gathered himself for the lecture.

"My name is Cole Tuner, and I guess I'll be teaching you for the next few months." Cole started, a bit more timid than he usually was in front of people. While he had experience speaking in front of courts before, talking to a group of eager young teenagers was not something to which he was accustomed. "Over the course of our classes, we'll be going over the demonic hierarchy, the various races that are within that hierarchy, the history of the Underworld, and finally, I'll be giving you some profiles on a select few demons of whom you should be made aware. Feel free to ask any and all questions you may have, as I am here to prepare you and make sure you know more than just the basics to the demonic world."

"Where is the Underworld, exactly?" Instantly came the first question from a boy with blond hair, earning a snicker from his classmates.

"It's a realm of existence just like Earth, which can only be reached by teleportation or portal. I will sprinkle in some cosmological information into my lectures, so you'll get a broader understanding of the various planes and realms of existence that exist over the course of our studies." Cole answered, knowing that most of their questions would be answered so long as he gave them thorough information. "As for the demonic hierarchy, it is a ladder of the demonic legions, which serves as a way to structure the variety of forces at the disposal of the Source and the demon world as a whole."

Pausing his lecture briefly, Cole walked over to the chalkboard that was at the front of the class, and drew a large pyramid with the levels representing the hierarchy. "At the bottom of the hierarchy are those individuals or groups that have been made outcasts like the vampire clans or the vanquished Kurzon or the banished Barbas. Beings in this level usually posed a risk to the Source, whom we will discuss later on, or acted against the Source in some way or another. Still at the bottom, just a tier above the outcasts, are warlocks and evil witches, beings that demons do not particularly respect, which results from the fact that demons are vanquished by the good counterparts of evil witches and warlocks."

"What's the difference between a warlock and an evil witch?" A witch with red hair asked, wanting to know what the difference was as she had always thought evil witches and warlocks were one and the same.

"That's a good question, but in order to answer it fully, first I must ask: how many of you know about the mythical window of opportunity?" Cole surveyed the group, and when no one answered, he nodded his head, having expected that. "I figured as much. The window of opportunity is the forty-eight hour period where a nascent witch can be swayed between good or evil. If the witch makes the decision to be evil after that period, he or she becomes an evil or dark witch, a witch that does not take the wiccan rede and uses his or her powers for their own personal gain. If, however, the witch takes the rede and betrays it by giving themselves over to evil or killing another witch, that witch then becomes a warlock. So, to answer your question, a warlock is one that breaks the vow of the rede, while an evil witch was never under the vow at all."

"After warlocks and evil witches, come monsters and low-level demons." Cole continued, writing in monsters and low-level demons in the next tier of the pyramid. "Monsters are beings like banshees and wendigos, monstrous beings that have human ancestry and no real place in the Underworld, but still pose a threat to mortals and witches alike. Low-level demons, meanwhile, are those demons that don't have a human form, don't usually possess the power of teleportation, and are not very intelligent in comparison to others of the hierarchy. Whatever powers they do possess are usually weak and practically unusable in the demonic sense. They tend to live in clans around the Underworld, and usually anoint a clan leader that is vanquished days later only to appoint a new one immediately after."

"They just live in the Underworld?" A boy asked with a strange look on his face, confused about what low-level demons actually did. Were they the cavemen of the demon world, or did they actually pose a threat to witches?

"That's basically what they do, yes, though more powerful demons may bless them with extra powers in order to use them as grunts or warriors." Cole explained, knowing the endless clans of low-level demons that were present in the Underworld. "Next comes the spirits and chevron demons." Cole started, before he was interrupted by another question, this time by a girl in the front.

"Chevron demons?" The girl questioned as she feverishly tried to copy everything Cole said into her notebook.

"Humans can transform into demons throughout the course of their lives. Some lost humans make deals with demons and enter into what is called the Academy." Cole answered patiently, which made the entire class appreciative. In most classes, the teacher made the students raise their hand and oftentimes wouldn't even answer the question, but Cole allowed them to speak their mind and ask whatever they wanted, a refreshing change from what they were used to experiencing. "The Academy is a grueling six year process which transforms the human soul into a demonic essence, losing all conscience and humanity in the person. They physically transform into demons with their first kill and become Chevron demons—it takes six chevrons to strip humanity, with a chevron being earned once a year until they leave the Academy. The chevrons are tallied on their forearm, and look almost like deep scars or burn marks."

He paused for a second, allowing the students who were taking notes to finish writing what he had just said. "Meanwhile, those humans who lived a life full of suffering and pain can harden their hearts and souls, and burn away their humanity by themselves. These people, who felt great emotions during their time, become spirits, demon-like beings with tremendous power. Andras, the vanquished Spirit of Rage, was a human who felt great rage during his lifetime and his life was destroyed because of it, and once he died, he became a Spirit that could unlock the rage inside someone else. Likewise, the Siren was burned for her actions, and her rage against men transformed her into a spirit. Spirits can be exalted into demonhood when they gain enough traction in the Underworld, such as the case of Barbas, the demon of fear, who was once the spirit of fear long, long ago."

"Wow, he knows a lot," Phoebe whispered with a scowl, loathing to admit that Cole's knowledge was truly spectacular. _Then again_, she thought to herself, _living life as a powerful demon for over a century and as the Source of All Evil allows you to collect information_ _like that._

"Well, he should know about Andras. After all, he vanquished Andras himself," Piper rolled her eyes, recalling how Belthazor had sent Andras to break the Charmed Ones up. The plan had almost worked, except for the fact that the sisterly bond that she and her sisters had was too strong to break.

"Now there is a level that many on the side of good do not know about or realize, and for lack of a better term, they are called mid-level demons or level-two demons." Cole continued, leaning against the desk at the head of the class with his arms crossed. "These are demons who have just enough power and ability to not be considered low-level, but do not possess anywhere near the power of a demon above them in the hierarchy. This tier includes Zotars, special bounty hunters in the demonic world that have the ability to smell and track blood, as well as other servants of high-level demons. While it isn't a level per se, for our purposes just know that there are demons that have the ability to leave the Underworld that are not as powerful as upper-level demons, but they are also not as weak as low-level demons, which you may come up against in your battles against the legions of evil."

"When you say they don't have the power of a demon above them, what do you mean by that exactly?" A female student questioned, biting the tip of her pen in thought.

"I'm using the word power in a variety of ways here," Cole said, looking over at her, trying to explain what he meant. He knew it could get confusing, so he understood why the students would ask such questions. "By power, I mean not only their active power, like telekinesis or energy balls, but also the pool of magical energy that they possess within themselves, which controls how strong an energy ball or a spell can be, as well as the general clout that they have within the Underworld. You can tell the lesser powered demons from the more powerful ones, as their powers will be slightly different—like take fireballs for example: an upper-level demon throws fireballs made of swirling bands that are lit in flames, which has a more concussive effect, while lower demons throw a small, literal ball of flames, that has limited concussive effect. The lower demons power was once known as flame balls, but good magic combined them into a singular power and does not distinguish them anymore."

"I never knew that," Leo said, shaking his head in a mix of amusement and apt attention. Cole was giving the students information that many on the side of good did not know, which would be immensely helpful to them in the future.

"Now that he's said that, it does make sense," Paige nodded, thinking about how many of the demons she had come up against lately had thrown balls composed of flames, rather than the distinctive type of fireballs that the Source had used.

"Next are the darklighters, who are a tier above mid-level demons, spirits and chevron demons. They are former humans that lived an evil life and were reborn by the Infernal Council as darklighters, evil analogues to whitelighters." Cole lectured, his gaze unintentionally moving to Leo in the back of the class, before returning to the students. "Opposite to the whitelighters who protect good witches and further good magic, darklighters are meant to hunt whitelighters and propagate evil in the human world."

A boy furrowed his brows, wondering how far the comparison to whitelighters went for darklighters. "So, what, their souls are converted into a darklighter, kind of like whitelighter souls are?"

"Yes," Cole replied, nodding his head in agreement. "That is exactly how it works. While you can be born a darklighter if you have a darklighter parent, their powers do not transfer very easily as it is one of the many safeguards imposed by the council to prevent darklighters from having too much power. When we have a full lecture about the darklighters, I'll give you further information on those safeguards and the rest of their abilities, but for now, just know that they are former humans that are meant to spread evil in the world. After darklighters come the aforementioned upper-level demons, dark priests and priestess, and dark faes, like demonic sorcerers and alchemists."

"Faes?" A few students questioned, giggling a bit at the word. To them, it sounded like fairies, reminding many of them of their childhood, where they had imaginary friends that took the form of fairies—which, unbeknownst to them, were actually real fairies.

"You remember how I mentioned the planes of existence earlier?" Cole questioned the class, and upon seeing the students all nod, he continued, "There is one plane that serves as an intermediary between the Earthly realm and the Underworld, a place you are all familiar with, one that is commonly known as Avalon in fairy tales. And in this world, there is a race of human-looking beings called faes. Faes include the spell casters like the sorcerers, the alchemists, and the wizards, as well as the soothsayers like the oracles. In other words, when someone says a dark fae, they mean a fae aligned with evil and the Underworld, rather than the neutral faes or sometimes even good ones. However, most people just say sorcerer or wizard or oracle, rather than the name of their species as a whole."

"Avalon?" Phoebe whispered to Leo, a look of curiosity on her face. "He's making that up, right?"

"No," Leo shook his head in the negative. "It's one of the Magical Realms, like the Enchanted Kingdom or plane, you know, where fairies come from."

"Finally, just below the Source, come devils, anointed ones, and other beings of incredible power, as well as the various groups that serve the Source like the Ordo Malorum, the Triad, the Infernal Council and the Cult of Darkness. They are species greater than demons; most are ferocious, many are impossible to vanquish, and they are all but unstoppable except by the most powerful of forces." Cole informed them, teaching about the last level of beings that served directly underneath the Source.

A boy cocked an eyebrow, recognizing the word devil, but not understanding the difference between devil and demon. "What are devils?"

"Keep that question in mind, because that will be a topic of conversation all to itself. I promise I will answer it in one of the next lectures," Cole said, frowning slightly, knowing that answering that question would be too in depth for what they were discussing at the moment. Then, seeing another hand raised, he said, "And let me guess, what are anointed ones?" Seeing the girl's nod, he smiled, appreciating their curiosity, a trait that he did not possess when he lived as Belthazor. "Anointed ones are those beings that are blessed by a supreme evil, ie: the Source, to achieve a specific goal or perform a particular act. The most familiar anointed ones are the Horsemen of the Apocalypse, magically aware humans who have been appointed and anointed by the Source to bring about the destruction of the human world."

Cole paused to gather his thoughts, and took a swig out of the water bottle that he had brought with him. "Next comes the Source?" A girl in the back mentioned, as if anticipating what Cole was going to say next.

"Next comes the Source," Cole agreed with a nod, capping the bottle once more and placing it back down on his desk. "He or she, depending on which demon ascended to the throne and took on the vapor, is at the top of the Underworld hierarchy, the king or queen of demons and monsters alike, lord of shadows and darkness, and…the Source of All Evil."

"So there can be demons that kill the Source to take the throne? It's a position, not a person?" A boy asked, trying to decipher the exact meaning of the title Source of All Evil.

"A question about the Source," Paige muttered in slight disgust, staring at Cole with a narrowed gaze. "That's one Cole should be able to answer without even thinking about it. Why don't we ask him who the last Source of All Evil was…well, before the Seer that is?"

"Paige…" Leo warned, not wanting to involve the students in their issues with Cole. Up until that point, Cole had been nothing but a great teacher, lecturing in great detail and doling out more information than most in his position would be able to give.

"It's…a mixture of both." Cole answered, honestly, having first hand experience. "It's a topic of discussion that will be far in the future. Remember, as your powers grow, evil will grow, so it's better to know the bottom of the hierarchy more now as they will be the evil that you come up against for the foreseeable future. Be aware, though: there are evil beings outside of the hierarchy, and many of you will come up against foes that are not connected to the Underworld in anyway. You should be alert to these beings, in addition to demons, darklighters, and monsters. They are soul collectors and ghosts, goblins, lords of war, and of course, the entombed Titans. If you come against a threat you cannot fight or do not know, don't be afraid to call your whitelighter immediately and get to safety."

Just then, the bell rang out, signifying the end of the class. "I see we're out of time. Next week we will go into more depth about the bottom tier of the hierarchy, with the following weeks tackling each tier above the previous week until we reach the Source. I look forward to getting to know you all in the coming months. Have a nice day," Cole finished, giving them a smile, before turning around and gathering his things up to leave.

The Halliwells stood in the back until all of the students had left, and then approached the front of the classroom, where Cole was still packing his bag back up. "Cole," Phoebe said to the back of Cole Turner, trying to get his attention. She waited through his lecture to get her answers, and now that the students had left, she intended on getting those answers.

"Thanks for coming; I hope you enjoyed the lecture. Have a nice day," Cole replied, not turning around to face his ex-wife and her family. Admittedly, he was aware that he did some awful things to them all, but he hadn't even tried to contact them in nearly two years, wanting to instead move on and leave his former life in the past where it belonged.

"How are you still alive?" Phoebe questioned in a scowl, knowing that Cole wouldn't turn around. When he did not respond, Phoebe growled in frustration. "Answer me!" She demanded, taking a step closer to him as if ready to attack.

"Leave me alone, please, I'm not bothering you." Cole finally said, stopping what he was doing, but still not meeting their gaze or facing them.

"You're endangering children!" Paige snarled, angry that Cole was allowed anywhere near innocent kids. Not only was he a former demon, but he was also the former Source of All Evil, which was something that was not easily forgotten or forgiven.

"I am not endangering anyone." Cole scoffed, his eyes staring directly ahead of him, becoming a bit agitated by the assertion. While he did not wish to see any of the sisters, he especially did not want to see Paige, the sister that always distrusted him, even when he was legitimately good. "If I was, I wouldn't be allowed into the school in the first place."

"Turn around and answer my question, Cole." Phoebe demanded once more, not allowing him to get off from her request. She deserved answers after all he had put her through, and not receiving those answers was not an option to her.

"I don't owe you anything, Phoebe." Cole returned, walking towards the door in an effort to leave. Both Phoebe and Paige quickly jumped in front of him, blocking his path. "I had no idea you were even connected to magic school; I learned that Leo was the guardian days after I accepted the post."

"Phoebe, Paige, let's just leave him alone and let him go. You heard the lecture, it was really, really informative. He taught those kids things that no one, literally, no one in the world can teach them. He's protecting witches by giving them knowledge that they would not otherwise have. Plus," Piper mused, gesturing to Leo, who stood next to her, silently agreeing with everything that she said. "Like Leo said, if he had any evil thoughts, he would not be able to even come to magic school, let alone be hired to teach."

"If he's not evil then what is he?" Phoebe spat, looking back and forth between Piper and Cole.

"Leo can answer that," Cole informed her, looking at the Elder, who raised an eyebrow in response. "Goodbye now," He finished, before teleporting out of the room in an outline of dull, sparkling white lights that looked like a grey form of Leo's orbing ability.

"Impossible," Leo whispered with his eyes wide in shock, surprised by the way that Cole had teleported. "I don't know what he is for sure, but he's certainly not evil. I'll be back." He said, transforming into a silhouette of blue and white lights that rose into the air before dissipating a few moments later.

A/N: This plot comes from a follow up story to "Seven Year Witch" that I wrote a few years ago, except I changed a few things to make it a stand alone story. Additionally, this will allow me to put some of my ideas on the plot holes and incongruencies with some things on Charmed, as well as the basic cosmology. What Cole actually is was referenced in my Essence of the Demon story, so this idea has been around since the early chapters of that story.


	2. The Second Class

**Charmed: Hanging with Mr. Turner**

Disclaimer: I don't own charmed, but the WB does.

Summary: AU After Season six- After Gideon's death, Leo has taken over his position as guardian of the school but has hired a headmistress to handle all school matters. When the headmistress hires a familiar new teacher, the Halliwells must investigate to see what this new teacher's plans are. Are they good? Or is there an ulterior motive here?

A/N: Just a quick story based around plots that I have written over the last few years, which are mostly about Cole and Phoebe. Review and tell me what you think!

**Chapter 2: The Second Class **

Looking at each other, Phoebe gave out a growl of frustration, while Piper simply shrugged in indifference. Grabbing hold of her two sisters, Paige orbed them all back to the manor, where the three went their separate ways for the day—Phoebe went to go write her column for the next day, while Paige went to go call Kyle to further their budding romance. The oldest sister Piper, meanwhile, bit her lip in thought, before deciding to go up to the attic, intent on easing her sisters' worries.

Once she got up there, she quietly closed the attic door behind her, and walked over to the Book of Shadows, opening it up to the Belthazor summoning page that was found within it. She grabbed a few candles from the table that was off to the side, and placed them in a circle, lighting them all up with a match. "Magic forces black and white, reaching out through space and light, be he far or be he near, bring the former demon Belthazor here." She chanted, looking down at the circle of candles that was placed in the center of the attic.

"Not the sister I expected," A voice said from behind her, making her whirl around in fright. "You know, that spell doesn't work on me anymore and I only came tell you that, not because your magic forced me to come."

"I have some questions for you, Cole." Piper informed him, as Cole came around and took a seat in one of the wicker chairs that were stored in the attic. His gaze moved around the room, and he was unsurprised to see that it hadn't changed much since he had last seen it, save perhaps for the children's' toys that were scattered about.

"And I will answer them because you are the one asking them," Cole admitted, turning his attention from the attic to the witch in front of him. "I've always liked you, Piper, you know that. But if I answer them, you have to leave me alone afterwards."

"I know," Piper nodded, having always known that Cole preferred her over Prue and Paige. "How are you not dead? Paige said that she saw you vanquished. We even went to your penthouse and it was empty."

"I'm neither a ghost, nor a demon, if that answers your question." Cole replied, not giving Piper any more information than she needed. While he would answer her questions, it would be on his terms, not hers.

"It doesn't," Piper shook her head, knowing that there were a thousand other things he could be instead of a ghost or a demon. "Then what are you? Poltergeist? Nightmare?"

"I'm not a danger to you, your sisters, or your son." Cole replied, hoping to ease any concerns that the witch had about him. "And before you start jumping at me for even mentioning your son, I know I have no right to talk about him, I know that, I was just making sure you understood that I am not after you in any way, shape or form. That's all. I simply want to teach young witches and magical children the considerable knowledge that I have in the hopes that they can use it to do a lot of good in the world, and most importantly, they can use it to better protect themselves."

Piper noticed that he did not say sons, which meant that he was unaware of Chris' birth. "I'm not worried about that, but my sisters are, and I want to be able to answer their questions." Piper replied honestly, the idea that he was after Wyatt or Chris having not crossed her mind. If he was after Wyatt or Chris, she assumed that he would have a lot less detailed of a plot than pretending to teach at magic school. "So what are you?"

"I'm a ranger, a soul ranger to be exact, a guardian angel-like being that goes around and helps lost souls, protects the Earthly realm from skeletal beings, and fights soul collectors." Cole answered honestly, giving into Piper, deciding that answering the questions was a better tactic than continuing to be hassled by them. "All of the powers that I have now are not demonic, and they only relate to my duties as a ranger."

"Soul ranger?" Piper almost laughed, finding it funny that such a thing existed. "How come I've never heard of such a thing?"

"Because the book is written by witches who are alive or never experienced life as a lost soul," Cole replied easily, recognizing the fact that the book was added to by past witches after they had died in some cases. He got back to his feet and walked over to Piper, before manually turning the pages of the book himself, which elicited a gasp of shock from Piper. He stopped on the page that explained about soul collectors, showing Piper what he meant. "Most of my charges are dead." He explained, before flipping through another few pages and stopping on the page about skeletal beings. Then, he took a step back and allowed Piper to read the page, his gaze moving around the attic. "Plus, there aren't many of us and you aren't supposed to know about us. And as for the name, would a ghost buster be more professional to you?"

Piper ignored his joke, instead focusing on the content behind what he said. "I've fought a skeletal being before, how come a soul ranger didn't show up then?"

"Because when you fought Necron, he was after a life, not a soul." Cole answered simply, remembering the incident where Phoebe had turned into a mermaid. "Rangers only concern themselves with souls, and rarely ever get involved with things like that. Even ghosts, ones that may stray into the territory of a ranger are often left for witches to handle, unless a soul collector gets involved and even then, if a witch is working on it before a ranger, the ranger will move on to another charge."

"You mean to tell me that you're good, that you actually help people?" Piper inquired, double checking to make sure that was what Cole was saying.

"More neutral than good, but yes, I help people," Cole nodded in the affirmative, realizing that it was a far cry from his days as Belthazor, the demonic soldier of fortune that had killed witches and innocents alike. "Don't act too surprised now."

Piper stared at Cole for a second, and then a thought popped into her head, something that didn't sit right with what she knew about Cole. "What's in it for you?" She questioned, recalling how Cole never did something without a plan, without a benefit to himself or an ulterior motive.

"An opportunity," Cole answered cryptically, not going into more detail than that. What he was getting out of being a ranger was something private and important, not something that he felt Piper needed to know.

"Piper, are you up here?" Phoebe's voice came, as she opened the attic door and entered the room, attempting to find her older sister. Her smile faded when she saw Cole, and her eyes went wide with rage. "What is he doing here?"

"I summoned him," Piper answered, taking a step in between Cole and Phoebe, as if to separate the two "He's answered your questions, and I am satisfied with what he had to say."

"I have a new question for him," Phoebe spat, pointing at him threateningly. She walked towards him, stopping about five feet before him, continuing to stare at him as she thought of what she wanted to say to him. "What hell did he crawl out of in order to sneak back into our lives?"

"I didn't go back to the Wasteland after my last vanquish," Cole answered sarcastically, annoyed with Phoebe's attitude. "Because reality reset itself at the exact moment I died, I was stuck in the void between life and death, unable to move on. I didn't go to hell and I have no intention of entering your lives, let alone by sneaking back into them. Either way, it was good seeing you Piper, good luck with everything. And goodbye, Phoebe." He nodded to both sisters, and then sparkled out of the attic in a silhouette of grey orbs that rose into the air and disappeared.

"What the hell was that, Piper?" Phoebe turned on her sister, narrowing her gaze. Piper had told both her and Paige to drop it, and here she was going behind their backs and talking to Cole, a fact that made her quite angry.

"He wasn't going to answer your questions if you asked them, Phoebe, but I knew he would if I asked them." Piper answered honestly, leaving the attic and walking down stairs with Phoebe following closely behind her. "He's not evil, and he wants nothing to do with us."

"He's a demon, of course he's evil, Piper!" Phoebe snapped, still not believing that Cole wasn't evil and wasn't there to turn her evil again. Her biggest fear in the world was that she would turn evil again, and in order to prevent that, she was constantly vigilant to any temptation that may come about, this one being no different.

"He's not a demon; he's a ranger, a power ranger or a soul ranger or something like that." Piper said, recalling what Cole had told her just moments prior to Phoebe's entrance into the attic. "He helps people, Phoebe, he's good….or neutral, his words, not mine."

"It's a lie," Phoebe said, adamant in her beliefs about Cole.

"What is?" Paige questioned as she walked up the stairs, while Phoebe and Piper walked down.

"Cole being good," Piper answered in an exasperated tone, hoping that she would be able to get through to Phoebe soon.

"Oh, that again," Paige sighed, as she passed the sisters and continued to walk up the stairs, apparently not wanting to think about it.

"Phoebe, just drop it." Piper ordered, entering the kitchen to start on making dinner for the family. "Until he makes an attempt to ruin our lives, or even intrude on them, just move on and forget about it."

"He's not your ex-husband, Piper." Phoebe snapped, knowing that if Cole was Piper's ex, she would have the same feelings as her.

"I get that," Piper nodded in understanding, turning on the stove and heating up some hot water. "But I also see that you may not be thinking as clearly as you would be if he wasn't your ex-husband. I'm not saying you're wrong for the feelings that you have, all I'm saying is that your history with him may be skewing those feelings just a tad. We have no evidence, outside of him being alive, that he's after us."

"He's a soul ranger," Leo's voice came, as his body appeared in a silhouette of blue and white orbs. "They're the exact opposite of soul collectors, instead of using spirits for revenge, they help spirits move on. Phoebe, you remember the woman that was with Jackson Ward when you and Prue had to deal with that ghost, the one that you told me about?" Leo questioned, looking over to the middle sister, who gave a grunt of recognition in response. "I think her name was Charon, and if it was Charon, she was a soul collector. Yeah, he's the opposite of her, so he's not dead, but he might not necessarily be alive, either."

"We know," Piper informed her husband, as she poured some salt into the boiling pot of water. She grabbed a bowl of chicken stock form out of the refrigerator and brought it over to the pot, before dumping the contents of the bowl into the pot, as well.

"What, how?" Leo questioned confusedly, looking between Phoebe and Piper for an answer.

"Piper summoned him," Phoebe replied, rolling her eyes, still a bit perturbed by Piper's actions. While she knew Piper had good intentions by doing it, she still felt betrayed a little by what Piper did. "Still, I think he's evil and I'm going to be keeping on an eye on him just in case."

"He's not evil, Phoebe," Leo returned, sitting down at the kitchen table. "They wouldn't have chosen him if he was."

"Who chose him?" Phoebe asked, staring at Leo, wondering who in their right mind would allow Cole a chance to help people.

"Can't tell you that, Phoebe," Leo shook his head, making Phoebe wonder whether he didn't know who did it or it was a secret that he couldn't reveal.

"Why did they choose him?" Piper asked, wondering if Leo had any insight into that decision. In her mind, Cole Turner was many things, but a selfless guardian angel was not one of them. The thought of Cole and Leo being so similar in duties was mind-boggling to her, though she knew she would have to come to accept it sooner or later if it indeed turned out to be true.

"He's an enigma to the universe, and a near perfect fit for the duties that he has to perform." Leo replied honestly, seeing the brilliance in Cole's selection as a ranger. "He wasn't the first, or the only, and will not be the last half-demon to exist. There have been many before him and there will be many after him. What he did with his soul, however, was pretty unusual, an action that shows how intelligent his demonic half really was, in an evil sort of way."

"Go on," Phoebe prodded, wanting to know what Leo meant by that. She knew that Cole was very intelligent, it was one of the things that attracted her to him, but she did not know where Leo was going with what he had said.

"Many half-demons perform an act of supreme evil to burn away their humanity and their soul, usually by killing all of their mortal relatives. Other half-demons take a potion or a tonic, or even perform a dark ritual to extract their souls from their persons, making them a demon pure. Belthazor, meanwhile, suppressed his humanity and shuttered away his human soul, the person we know as Cole Turner, minimizing it to the point that he only allowed it to stay with him so he could better infiltrate the human world." Leo continued, gazing over at Phoebe, explaining what made Cole so special. "It wasn't until he met and fell in love with you, Phoebe, that his human soul even had a chance to gain some power, and in time, was able to suppress his demonic self, Belthazor. Hence, technically speaking, before the Source and all that other stuff happened, Cole, or rather his soul, was an innocent. And being almost an innocent that had knowledge of the magical world, the ability to wield massive amounts of power, a desire to atone for past mistakes, and being a spirit that can't move on, he was a near perfect candidate to be a ranger."

The next week passed by quickly, and before Phoebe knew it, she was sitting in the back of the classroom in Cole's demonology class. She had tried to talk Paige and Piper into attending with her, but unfortunately for her, neither wanted to waste their time. Begrudgingly, Phoebe went to the class alone, feeling a bit awkward, but knowing that someone needed to keep an eye on Cole. She waited for Cole to arrive, trying not to eavesdrop on the school's rumors that all of the students were currently whispering about. She thought back to her own days during high school and she couldn't help but smile at them, remembering them as fun and easy, not filled with threats against her life from demons and warlocks alike.

"Hello, everybody," Cole smiled as he walked into the room, his eyes briefly meeting the students before stopping on Phoebe. He immediately noticed that, unlike last time, Phoebe was the only Halliwell there, which to him meant he was making progress. "I'm glad to see everyone is back and I didn't scare anyone off during our last session together."

"We've been waiting for this class since we've started magic school, do you think you'll scare us off that easily?" A female witch joked, erupting a round of laughter from the rest of the class.

"Touché," Cole grinned, knowing that the students were excited to be in his class. It wasn't necessarily the curriculum that made them excited, but rather what it represented—they were almost done with school and they'd be out in the real world soon. "So I believe we finished going over the basic hierarchy of the Underworld last time, which allows us to go over each tier in more depth from now on. Today, we'll be going over the outcasts that have been expelled from the Underworld by the Source, as well as touch on bottom tier of warlocks and evil witches, which will be the subject of next week's class. Are there any questions so far?" Cole asked, looking around the room, wondering if anyone was confused about anything.

Seeing no one raise their hand or voice their questions, Cole turned and drew the pyramid back onto the chalkboard like he did during the first class. "Firstly, let's discuss the outcasts, those exiled from the Underworld." He started, circling the bottom tier to show what he meant. "These evil pariahs, for lack of a better word, are expelled for a variety of reasons, but mainly because the Source didn't want to have to deal with them. For instance, around twenty or so years ago, Kurzon, once one of the most powerful and familiar outcasts, rallied a faction of demons and tried to lead a coup against the Source. The Source, apparently aware of the fact that he risked possible defeat in a head to head battle with Kurzon, decided to outcast Kurzon instead of fighting him personally."

"Where do the outcasts go?" A female witch with blonde hair questioned, wondering if the demons had another home that she didn't know about. "What exactly does it mean to be made an outcast?"

"They teleport around the realms, from plane to plane," Cole answered with a shrug, having no specific knowledge on the subject since every outcast was different. When he was the most wanted demon in the entire Underworld, he shimmered around the planes in an effort to keep the Source from realizing he was still alive, but he was never banished and could therefore be seen in the Underworld. "They are not forced to go anywhere; they just cannot be seen in the Underworld or face being attacked on sight. Kurzon and his second in command Keats usually stayed on Earth, though some have been known to find a home in the other realms, especially Avalon. As for the outcast process, all it means is that they cannot be seen in the Underworld or else all demons would be after them, which clearly is dangerous. It's not like there is a bounty on their head, instead it just means that demons have an obligation to attack the exile should they see him or her."

A male witch raised his hand, itching to find out why Kurzon thought he was powerful enough to fight the Source. "What kind of powers does Kurzon have?"

"Well, he was vanquished by the Charmed Ones, so he doesn't have any powers," Cole informed them, referencing Kurzon's vanquish nearly three years prior, to which he was an eyewitness. "But to show the type of powers that an outcast would have, when he was alive, Kurzon was an extremely capable demon; he could teleport from place to place in a way reminiscent of both shimmering and fading sometimes called flaring or gleaming, depending on the speaker; he could also reconstitute himself if he was blown up by molecular powers, he additionally possessed super strength, and finally, he could throw highly potent energy balls, some of the strongest in the Underworld. He was also highly resistant to injury, being able to even fend off a direct hit from one of the Source's fireballs, and if he ever was injured, he was able to regenerate at a rapid pace. However, I would imagine his abilities were not limited to those powers, so even if you think you know an enemy, you may not know him as well as you think, which is something to remember."

"Why did Kurzon betray the Source?" A red-haired girl in the front questioned, wondering what would make a demon go against the Source like Kurzon had.

"Because he's a demon," Cole replied simply with a shrug of his shoulders, knowing exactly the way demons worked. As Belthazor, there were many times that the demon inside of him wanted to kill someone just to kill them, but his human soul and his considerable intelligence kept him from doing that, knowing that it would not benefit him in the long run. "And that's what demons do. Beyond that, however, Kurzon was trained by the Ordo Malorum to be a general in the demonic legion, to be a leader in the Underworld. He did that for countless of years before he was tired of following and wanted to lead for himself. His own ego led to his banishment by the Source, which led to his eventual vanquish."

"Are there any outcasts still alive?" The red-haired girl followed up, seeing if there were other outcasts that roamed about the world.

"Sure," Cole nodded in the affirmative, numerous banished demons or clans immediately jumping to his mind. "I only used Kurzon as an example because I was well aware of his case. There are demons that have been captured in the Source's dungeon because the Source didn't know how to vanquish them, demons like the entrapped Zankou—speaking of which, I have a story about Zankou and the Source that I will tell you about when we start discussing the Source, so be ready for that. But back to the Source's dungeon, there is an old saying about it that I think conveys the message quite nicely: you're dead, damned, or desperate if you're down there, so it's obviously not a place a demon wants to be. Anyway, if the Source can capture them, he tries to capture them, if not, they are banished like in the case of the vampires because the Source does not want to risk a one on one battle with them—after all, he could very well lose and be vanquished as a result or even have his authority questioned if his victory isn't convincing enough. That is especially true with the vampires. The vampires, because of their ability to expand their armies at a quick pace, were banished by the Source hundreds of years ago out of fear. Each vampire queen rules over her coven and has full control over her vampire family, which shows that a vampire queen could have a loyal army to fight against the Source should they so choose, perhaps justifying the Source's fear of them."

A younger-looking boy in the back of the class who was usually quiet looked up to Cole with a questioning glance. "Are vampires mortals?"

"Individual vampires can be turned from mortals or witches or other magical species, but the vampire queens are demons pure." Cole informed them, remembering his various dealings with the vampires as the Source. "People are turned into vampires when another vampire bites them. However, it is not until a new vampire has tasted blood and killed their first innocent do they truly convert into vampires, as is the case of many types of monsters that we will discuss in the future." Cole finished, and then realizing that it would probably be good to give them more information, he bit his lip, thinking about what specific vampire traits that he knew. "As a side bar, to kill a vampire, you must drive a stake through their heart or destroy the vampire queen. An individual vampire's powers are numerous, such as limited shape shifting into the form of a bat, super strength, resistance to injury, the ability to cling to solid surfaces, enhanced senses, and flight while in bat form. Be warned, that as vampires grow in age, they become immune to the powers of a witch, which is something to be cognizant about."

"When you say that vampire queens are demons pure, you mean that vampires are a race of demons?" Another boy asked with furrowed brows, having always thought that vampires were vampires and not demons.

"Not quite," Cole shook his head in the negative, not having meant that exactly. "Legend has it that, before the time of the Elders themselves, a demon, or a warlock more likely, was attacked by a swarm of bats after he tried to kill a witch. Apparently the witch had the ability to control animals, and to defend herself, she set the bats loose on him, which transferred onto him some bat-like qualities when he was bitten by them. The demon survived and got away, and eventually had five daughters, each of whom had the powers of a bat and an unworldly taste for blood—the first vampire queens. Through the generations, the legitimately born children of the original daughters became pure vampires themselves, who make up all of the various vampire queens that are found in the world. And by legitimate children, I mean those actually born to the vampire queens, rather than transformed into vampires by being bitten by one."

A half an hour passed, with Cole discussing various other demons and beings that had banished and made an outcast by the Source. Eventually, the lecture moved on to the start of the warlock and evil witches. "Warlocks that are born from warlocks do not bleed and have the ability to transform into a monstrous appearance, which enhances their powers," Cole recited, knowing that when a warlock transformed into their monstrous appearance, his or her resistance to injury was greatly enhanced and they gained limited super strength. "A warlock born to two warlocks is tainted by evil, and while they can renounce their ways, they usually do not. Eventually, as the line of warlocks grows through the ages and they become more evil, their souls slowly transform into demonic essences before they too are demons and not warlocks anymore. That's what truly makes warlocks different than evil witches—warlocks are almost demonic, while dark witches are just evil and dark, but still very much mortal."

"I always thought that dark witches were simply witch practitioners, rather than magical witches like us." A boy supplied, having always misunderstood the distinction.

"Well, evil witch practitioners are dark witches, so you're not incorrect in that statement, but magical witches can also be dark witches, as well." Cole said, informing him that his assessment wasn't entirely wrong. "And for those who don't know, witch practitioners are those witches who do not have magical powers themselves, but still have a latent witch gene that allows them to use energy around them to perform magic."

"Mr. Turner, sir?" A brown-haired witch said slowly, holding her hand high in the air.

"Yes, Sara?" Cole asked, raising a questioning eyebrow, wondering why she raised her hand when he allowed them to just voice their questions. What was so important that she felt the need to be so formal?

"You know my name?" Sara replied, surprised that Cole knew her name. He was a new teacher, and they had only seen each other twice, so she had no expectation that he would actually know who she was.

"A teacher is supposed to know their students' names, no?" Cole smiled at her, which earned a large grin from Sara. In the back of the room, Phoebe cocked an eyebrow, noticing the class's interaction with Cole, which appeared to show that they all liked him very much. "What was your question?"

"Last week, when explaining the difference between dark witches and warlocks, you mentioned the mythical window." Sara started with a nervous look on her face, clearly upset by something. "When does this window apply? And why doesn't evil just use a spell to turn witches evil during that window?"

"Well, this is more of a topic for next week, but I'll answer it today instead. The mythical window applies when a witch comes into his or her powers fully. In other words, when you all graduate from magical school and turn either 18 or 19, the 48 hour window will start. Do not worry about evil putting you under a spell, however, as they cannot do that. They must respect free will. They can seduce you, tempt you, but they cannot cross over into outright mind-control." Cole answered, and then upon seeing a few faces in the class, he added, "Don't be frightened; you are all good people, wonderful witches, and the window will pass with you all being the same good people that you are today."

"I hope so," Sara muttered fearfully, clearly unnerved by the idea of the mythical window. She always thought that, being born to two good witch parents that she would always be good and could not be changed, but hearing about the mythical window and how her morality was still open to change was not something that made her comfortable.

Sensing the class's apprehension, Cole nodded in understanding, knowing how draining a lecture could be, both mentally and emotionally. "You know what?" He started, running his gaze over the class, hoping to ease their concerns. "I see that you are all tired and I know we're a tad early today, but let's stop here. I've given you some preliminary information about warlocks, evil witches, and the mythical window, so read up some more on that for next week, and I'll see you then."

The students bustled around as they left the classroom, allowing Cole to gather his own things up to leave. "Mr. Turner?" A voice said from behind him, making him turn back around to face the student.

"Yes, Tag?" Cole questioned, raising a curious eyebrow at the student. Tag Sampson was a witch from the east coast that had the ability to teleport by way of smoking, a power that earned him his nickname of Tag for his penchant for appearing and disappearing when his power first awoke as a child.

"My girlfriend is in your gypsy and shaman demonology class, and she said that you went over something different than you did with us, I was wondering if I missed something last class that I should know." Tag asked, hoping that he hadn't missed a topic in the previous class.

"Oh no," Cole shook his head in the negative, knowing the exact reason for the differences in his lectures. "Because I'm not as familiar with gypsies and shamans as I am with witches, I teach them more from a book than I do for you guys here, where I use my personal knowledge instead. Likewise in the elemental class, I teach the firestarters and the rest a little different class than I do you witches. I know about firestarters and windwalkers and the rest, but I don't know them that well, and they all face different threats from the Underworld than do witches. Don't worry, in the end, my three demonology classes will have gone over basically the same things."

"Thanks," Tag replied, before walking out of the class and joining the rest of his friends in the hallway.

Phoebe slowly rose to her feet, and after Tag left, walked up to Cole, who had returned to gathering his things. "Cole," Phoebe said, coming up to him after the class was over once more.

"Phoebe, I'm sorry but I really don't have time to talk to you, I'm busy today." He said, grabbing his bag and making to sparkle away. Acting quickly, Phoebe reached out and took hold of Cole's sports jacket, tagging along on his teleportation and disappearing from the classroom in a flurry of grey orbs.

A/N: Yes, Keats mentioned as Kurzon's second in command was the Keats from "BiteMe." I figure the faction that Keats led was Kurzon's faction, after Kurzon was vanquished, hence why the Source was distrustful of him and why Keats himself tried to ally himself with the vampires.


	3. After School Project

**Charmed: Hanging with Mr. Turner**

Disclaimer: I don't own charmed, but the WB does.

Summary: AU After Season six- After Gideon's death, Leo has taken over his position as guardian of the school but has hired a headmistress to handle all school matters. When the headmistress hires a familiar new teacher, the Halliwells must investigate to see what this new teacher's plans are. Are they good? Or is there an ulterior motive here?

A/N: Just a quick story based around plots that I have written over the last few years, which are mostly about Cole and Phoebe. Review and tell me what you think!

**Chapter 3: After School Project**

"What did you do that for?" Cole growled when they arrived at his destination, angry that Phoebe would jump the teleportation like that. Not only did it violate his personal privacy, but it was also extremely dangerous—if she would have let go of him for even just a moment, she very well could have been trapped in between the planes, unable to escape.

"Because you weren't going to listen to me," Phoebe replied, moving her eyes around the area, trying to figure out where he had brought them. It seemed to be an apartment, as it had a large, king-sized bed, a bureau, and a desk in the corner, along with a small kitchen and a sitting area with a futon and a television in front of it. She saw clothes piled on a chair, and she cocked an eyebrow in curiosity, wondering if this was Cole's home now. "Is this where you live?"

"Yes," Cole nodded, going over to the desk and pulling out a small notebook. It was a leather bound book, like one would keep next to a telephone in order to record a message.

"Far cry from your penthouse," Phoebe admitted, noticing the austere living quarters Cole had in comparison to his previous home in San Francisco. The expensive elegance and décor was gone, and in its place was a more homey decoration style, one that seemed opposite Cole's wardrobe. "Where are we?"

"In the void between life and death," Cole answered, rummaging through some of the papers on his desk, seemingly looking for something. "If you meant physically where, like on a map, we're in Seattle."

"Seattle?" Phoebe repeated, surprised that they weren't in their home city of San Francisco. While she knew that Cole had been born in the city, she didn't know if he had lived there his entire life, but she assumed he had as he had never said anything to the contrary. "Why Seattle?"

"It's a supernaturally active place, just like San Francisco." Cole replied, informing her about the demonic activity that goes on within Seattle. Then, finding his pen, he gave out a sound of victory as a large smile appeared on his face. "There it is! Come, I have to get you home, people who are alive shouldn't be in the void for too long."

"Where are you going?" Phoebe questioned, seeing that he was in a rush. She still wanted to talk to him, even if she had to wait until he completed whatever it is he had to complete.

"I have charges that I have to help," Cole said, walking over to her and holding his hand out for her to take. He looked down at her expectantly, but she crossed her arms in front of her, not interested in leaving just yet.

"Charges? You mean like Leo? I want to come with you; I want to see you're not evil for my own eyes." Phoebe stood strong, seeing an opportunity to truly see what Cole was all about.

"It's too dangerous," Cole shook his head in the negative, knowing the dangers that having a mortal around presented while doing his duties. The beings that he had to fight could devour a mortal soul, ending the existence of that soul, preventing entry into the afterlife or reincarnation upon death.

"Cole, I'm a witch, I think I can handle it." Phoebe snapped, not accepting the danger that she would be in. She was a tough, strong, intelligent witch, she could protect herself if need be. "Or have you forgotten the many times I kicked your ass."

"This is different, Phoebe, your powers will not work here. I'm the only one with power in this situation. And, if something happens to you, it's not just your death; it's the end of your existence." Cole lectured, informing Phoebe of the dangers that she didn't know about or take into account. "Your soul will no longer exist. There are beings, things, monsters, that I fight that do not care about your physical body, but instead they only want what's inside, they want what makes you, you."

"I can protect myself, Cole," Phoebe reaffirmed, not allowing him to talk her out of coming. She could take care of and protect herself, and if not, it was her choice to make, not his. "I'm coming with you."

Cole stared at her for a few moments, weighing his options. "Fine, if it'll get you to stop annoying me, then yes, you can come, but don't say that I didn't warn you if you end up dying." He finally said through clenched teeth as he gripped Phoebe's hand in his own, immediately noticing that their hands still fit with one another. Looking down at her, he gave out a loud sigh as he sparkled them away to his charges, not really knowing what to expect.

"Where are we?" Phoebe questioned, looking around at her surroundings once they arrived. They seemed to be in a cabaret club by the atmosphere and the wardrobe everyone was wearing, though she knew not the year—everyone was dressed in gowns and suits that were more similar to the 1904 than 2004. "Did we go back in time?" She asked, wondering if it was some sort of theme party or if they truly did go back in time.

"You remember time loops? When Bo got shot, and you were suffering because of it?" Cole questioned as he started to walk through the crowd, looking at each individual as he passed. Some of the people stared back at him curiously, giving him the same looks that he was giving to them.

"Yes, why?" She questioned, noticing that she too was getting strange looks from everyone, apparently not wearing the proper attire for such a place or the time. She noticed that every woman present was hanging on the arm of a man, as if that was their place, rather than the freer world she was born into.

"This is a time loop," He answered, not turning his attention to her, instead still focusing on his surroundings. "These people will die in a fire, an experience they will have to relive over and over because they are lost souls."

Phoebe cocked an eyebrow, not understanding what he meant. "What are lost souls?" She asked curiously, having never heard the term before in a magical context.

"They are souls that can't move on because they are being tethered to the earthly plane by someone or something." He replied, flicking his blue eyes over to her. "They are nearly impossible to save, and it is my…our job to figure out why they're tethered and how to save them."

"So these people are dead?" Phoebe asked, feeling a bit uncomfortable as nearly everyone was staring at her and her odd appearance. She didn't know if they were going to attack her or something, which made her quite uneasy and forced her to be a bit defensive.

"Yes, though they don't know it." Cole nodded in the affirmative, his face blank and neutral, having experienced lost souls numerous times during his job. "They died in the year 1899, and have been constantly reliving this event ever since."

"That's over a hundred years," Phoebe whispered in a horrorstricken tone, shocked that they would relive their deaths for so long. How could souls continually relive an event over and over? What kind of monstrous thing happened that would force them to feel the pain of their own deaths for the rest of eternity?

"I can count," Cole muttered sarcastically, shaking his head in amusement. He took out his notepad and pen, and wrote something down, an idea that he had as to the cause of the lost souls' predicament.

"What did you write?" Phoebe inquired, getting on her tippy toes to look over the taller man's shoulder. She could just barely make out what it said, but didn't understand what it meant.

"I think some of these people may be bad spirits, or ghouls." Cole answered honestly, noticing how unsavory some of the people appeared to be. "That could be a reason why the good spirits can't move on."

"How do you know?" Phoebe questioned with a cocked eyebrow, wondering how he came to that idea.

"The guy in the booth over there had a gun, and while that may not mean he's a bad spirit, it does give me an idea that some of these people may not be the most respectable or savory of people." Cole answered, gesturing to the booth with his head. "Ghouls are human spirits that are aware of the magical world and tether themselves to Earth through their own actions during their lifetimes."

Phoebe nodded in understanding, getting a sense that Cole had been doing this for quite some time. "What other reasons could make this happen?"

"A demon could be the cause or…" Cole stopped, looked around, and then headed for the stage that was open and being unused at the present moment, the show having ended just minutes prior to their arrival. He jumped up onto the stage as Phoebe came running over to him, her eyes wide in shock.

"Cole!" She called out confusedly, gesturing for the man to come back down. "What are you doing?"

"Sometimes it's the way they died that causes souls to become lost," Cole informed her quietly, and then, in a louder voice, stared at the crowd and said, "Hello everyone! Please, do not panic; do not run for the exits, because it will not change anything. You are about to die. Please, take this time to get your affairs in order, while I try to save you all."

The crowd did not immediately react—the stared at Cole for a few seconds, before retuning to their conversation. Just then, there was the sound of what seemed to be an explosion, as one of the pillars in the corner crashed down to the ground. As fear ran throughout the club, and people started running for the exits, Cole jumped down and joined Phoebe on the floor in front of the stage. "Why'd you go and do that?"

"It might work," Cole shrugged, as flames started to erupt on the linens and burnable items.

"We have to help them!" Phoebe shrieked, watching as they all rushed to the exits that were blocked. Her heart went out to them; the souls that she knew would linger on for eternity unless they were set free.

"We can't, if we stay we burn like the rest of them, they'll be here later." Cole said, knowing it was true and that the souls wouldn't be going anywhere. While he hated to leave them to their fate once more, he knew that in the grander scheme of things, reliving their death once or twice more in order for Cole and Phoebe to escape death was much better than the potential of reliving their deaths for eternity should Cole die. Gripping Phoebe's shoulder, Cole sparkled them both out, arriving in Phoebe's room in the manor a few moments later.

"Why'd you bring us here?" She questioned, and then upon seeing Cole's face, she understood. "No, I'm seeing this through. I want to see you save those people, not just ignite a furor amongst them."

"We can't do anything right now, anyway." Cole muttered, looking down at the floor, trying to think of a way out of being around Phoebe any longer. It made him tense and halved his concentration as he cared about Phoebe's wellbeing more than he cared about doing his job, which was unfair to the lost souls. "We have to wait for the time loop to repeat."

"So, how long will that be?" Phoebe asked, willing to wait however long it would take. She wrote her paper from home, so it wasn't like she had to leave for work or anything like that.

Cole sighed, seeing that she was stuck in her desire to watch him work. "I'll be here in an hour. Try to wear something 1899-ish." Cole finally said, breaking the silence, before sparkling out, leaving her alone in her room once more.

"1899-ish? What the heck does that mean?" Phoebe sighed, walking out of her room and up to the attic. "Oh, hey," She said, seeing Paige and Piper in the attic once she got there.

"Back from class already?" Piper joked with a smile, making light of Phoebe's desire to go to Cole's class whenever he taught.

"Very funny," Phoebe stuck her tongue out at her sister, earning a grin from Piper. She hurried over to the large trunk that was in the corner of the attic, throwing it open to reveal a plethora of old, moth-ridden dresses, all ranging in styles and ages.

"What in the world are you look for?" Paige questioned, walking over to her older sister and watching her go through the piles of dresses, shirts, and pants.

"A dress that seems 1899-ish, I guess." Phoebe asked, pushing around some pink dresses, searching for the oldest looking one. She saw a green one that looked like it could work, but then put it back into the trunk when she realized it was much too large for her, apparently having been worn by a woman less petite than she was.

"Why do you need a dress that seems 1899-ish? Are you going to party like its 1899?" Paige laughed, seeing the absurdity that was in the idea of wanting to dress like it was two centuries prior to the current one.

"Yes, sort of," Phoebe nodded, looking over to her younger sister. "I'm helping Cole with one of his charges, and I need a dress that would allow me to fit in."

"Helping…Cole?" Paige asked, confusedly, a slight scowl forming on her face at the mention of the ex-demon. "Are you sure that's wise?"

"I'm making sure he's not evil with my own eyes," Phoebe replied, knowing that it was the only way to prove once and for all that Cole was not lying to them, that him teaching at MagicSchool was not some way to trick them or take over the world. "I'm making sure he's not here to hurt any of us, especially Wyatt and Chris."

"He's not," Piper sighed, flipping through the Book of Shadows as she distractedly looked for the demon that had attacked them the night before. "He might have been the Source of All Evil once, but he's not the source of any evil now."

Phoebe stopped what she was doing, furrowing her brows as she repeated Piper's assertion in her mind. "How are you so sure, Piper? Do you know something that I don't?" She questioned, getting to her feet and turning her attention over to her sister.

"Yes," Piper nodded in the affirmative. "He touched the book." She said simply, shrugging, not really seeing the big deal in it outside of it proving that Cole was good—or at the very least, not evil.

"…what?" Paige and Phoebe both blinked, anger bellying up inside of them. How could Piper not tell them about that? Better yet, how could she allow him to get that close to the book in the first place?

"When I summoned him, yeah, he perused through the book as if it was a dictionary. The book didn't jump one time, not once. I don't care if Cole has tricked us before, if he has tricked the Source of All Evil before, if he's tricked Leo before or the Brotherhood of the Thorn before, he's never, ever tricked the Book before." Piper declared sharply, her belief in the book's magic, power, and wisdom absolute. "And if the Book believes him to be good and Leo says he's good, and the Headmistress of the school believes he's good, that's more than enough evidence for me."

"Why did you not tell us this?" Paige demanded, incensed by the idea of both Cole being around the book and Piper hiding it from them.

"It slipped my mind, I'm sorry." Piper answered, really having forgotten about it, rather than not telling them as an attempt to hide it. "I'm not obsessed with finding out if Cole is evil or not, so I haven't really thought about it since then."

"How could something like that just slip your mind?" Paige criticized, narrowing her gaze at the shorter Piper.

"It doesn't matter; I'm still going to keep an eye out for him." Phoebe said, unwilling to believe that he was truly good, regardless of what the book said. "At least until I actually see him help someone for my own eyes." She finished, before turning back around and digging through the trunk, once more trying to find a suitable dress.

"You're looking in the wrong trunk, Pheebs," Piper noted, closing the book back up and walking closer to the trunks in the corner of the attic. "The other trunk is Gram's mother's stuff, not that one. But even then, that would only be clothes from the 1920's."

"That's fine; it doesn't have to be an exact match." Phoebe assured her, before rushing over to the trunk on the opposite side of the attic. She threw the top open, and perused through the items, before finding a black dress that she couldn't help but think she saw before. "Wait, this is what you were wearing when I went back in time!"

"Went back in time?" Paige asked, not remembering them going back in time, except for the knight that the prince came to visit from the past.

"My former self, you mean?" Piper inquired with a raised eyebrow, wondering if that's what she meant. She recalled the instance years ago where Phoebe's past life was coming back to haunt her, and her sister was subsequently sent back in time to figure out what was happening to her and how to fix it. "I'll tell you over dinner, Paige, it's a long story."

"I'll be back," Phoebe said, rushing out of the attic with the dress in her hand, presumably to try it on.

"Former life, you say?" Paige said with a smile, grinning from ear to ear, excited to hear the story. "Sort of like my Enchantress past life, hm?"

"Yeah," Piper nodded in agreement. "Except not evil." She finished with a laugh, taking a seat on one of the couches as she waited for Phoebe to return.

Twenty minutes later, Phoebe came back into the attic, wearing her newly found dress and having her hair scrunched up. She twirled around for her sisters to see, wanting to know what they thought about it. "First," Piper started, giving her a once over. While her sister did look stunning as usual, Piper doubted it was the look that Phoebe was going for at that moment. "I think you're showing way too much leg for 1899, and secondly, I think you're putting way too much effort into just seeing if someone is evil."

"I'm playing a part, Piper," Phoebe rolled her eyes, not wanting her sisters to think anything of it. She wanted to help the lost souls, and if Cole said that dressing up would help them, she was willing to do it, regardless of how it appeared to outside eyes. "But you think this is too much leg?"

"Yes, toots," Paige agreed with a nod, seeing how Piper would say that it was a bit inappropriate for what she was looking for.

"Darn," Phoebe said, before going back over to the trunk to look for something else. She rummaged through it once more, before pulling out a longer dress that was red in color. "How about this?" She questioned, holding the dress close to her body to gauge its length and look.

"That looks good enough," Piper nodded, seeing how it could resemble a dress from 1899, at least close enough to what Phoebe needed it for.

"I'll be back," Phoebe said, rushing out of the attic to change into the new dress.

"She is putting a lot of effort into this," Paige muttered, as she stared at the doorway, where Phoebe just left. Her eyes lingered for a moment before they flicked over to Piper, who had a perplexed look on her face as she stared back at Paige. "Do you think she's still into him?"

"I didn't," Piper said, biting her lip in thought, weighing everything she knew about it to decide. On one hand, she understood Phoebe's fervor to see if Cole was evil or not and reasoned it to an ex-wife being worried about her dangerous ex-husband, but on the other, she questioned whether it was mainly about Phoebe simply wanting to see Cole, which was preposterous to her before that night. Now, however, she was less certain which one was the correct answer, and doubted Phoebe even knew for herself. "But now, I'm not so sure anymore."

Another half an hour later, Phoebe bounded to the door after the bell rang, Paige and Piper standing in the background, watching what would happen quizzically. Phoebe threw open the door and, after seeing it was Cole, quickly sad goodbye to Paige and Piper and left in a hurry, closing the door behind her. "Yeah, this should end well," Paige whispered, before turning around and walking back into the kitchen, where she knew Piper had dinner ready for them.

On the patio, Cole looked down at Phoebe, studying how she was dressed, while she herself looked over what he was wearing. He was clad in an early 1900s hundreds suit, black in color, with a bowler cap that was snuggled on the top of his head. "Wow, you look…" Cole whispered, before shaking his head, ridding any inappropriate thoughts: he was allowing her to come just to save his charges, nothing more. "You look 1899-ish, good job."

"And you look exactly like a man from the late 1800s I once saw in a premonition," Phoebe grinned, ignoring his original reaction, not wanting to drudge up those feelings anymore as they led to nothing but arguments and pain.

"Who was that?" Cole questioned with a furrowed eyebrow, wondering who that could be.

"Your father," Phoebe supplied to him, remembering that vision that she had years prior as if it happened yesterday. She remembered the pain she saw on Benjamin Turner's face as Elizabeth ripped his son from his arms and then proceeded to kill him with an energy ball right in front of Cole's young eyes, which presumably started the boy down his path in becoming the greatest demonic soldier of fortune of all time, the demon Belthazor.

"You've seen my father?" Cole asked with wide eyes, surprised at that revelation, having never expected it. She had never told him before that she had a vision of his father and he briefly wondered when it had happened, where it had happened, and most importantly, why it had happened. Were they together when she saw him or was it more recently, after he had left her life?

"I saw the night that your mother stole you from your father, and killed him with an energy ball." Phoebe replied, informing Cole of what she had seen. It was a brutal, awful vision that informed her of what kind of person his mother had been—an evil and terrible woman.

Cole's head jerked to her at the mention of his mother, his crystalline blue eyes narrowing on hers. "When?" He asked, wanting to know when she had seen this vision and whether it had helped shape her opinion of him at any time.

"One night I was at the mausoleum, it's when I realized why you go there, outside of just the protection the graveyard offers you." Phoebe answered with a shrug, not remembering the exact date that she had it. It was a long time ago, she knew, years prior when she was a much different woman, still just an immature witch in her mid-twenties.

"You never told me that," Cole muttered in a tone Phoebe couldn't distinguish—it was a mix of sadness, disappointment, and another odd emotion that Phoebe couldn't place. "I only vaguely remember that night, but then again, that sounds like Bethlar." He then reached for her hand, and gripping it tightly, sparkled them away from the manor and into the time loop of the Phantome Cabaret.

A/N: Merry Christmas to all of you who are celebrating today! This chapter, and the next one, is a brief foray into Cole's after school life. He'll be back to teaching once it is over.


	4. After School Project, Part 2

**Charmed: Hanging with Mr. Turner**

Disclaimer: I don't own charmed, but the WB does.

Summary: AU After Season six- After Gideon's death, Leo has taken over his position as guardian of the school but has hired a headmistress to handle all school matters. When the headmistress hires a familiar new teacher, the Halliwells must investigate to see what this new teacher's plans are. Are they good? Or is there an ulterior motive here?

A/N: Just a quick story based around plots that I have written over the last few years, which are mostly about Cole and Phoebe. Review and tell me what you think!

**Chapter 4: After School Project, Part 2**

They arrived in the cabaret, and immediately walked over to an empty booth, taking a seat in it and staring around as the souls went about their night. They all seemed to be having fun, as conversations and laughter could be heard over the piano music that was playing in the corner. "What are we doing?" Phoebe asked, wanting to know what Cole had planned, how he was going to save the souls.

"I want to study the club, see the people, and experience what they experience," Cole answered, taking off his hat and placing it down on the table in front of him. He reached into his coat pocket and took out his notepad and pen, intending on writing some notes as he studied everyone. "So how have you been?" He questioned nonchalantly, watching as a waiter brought a drink over to a man that was lounging in a chair across the club.

"Excuse me?" Phoebe questioned back, confused by Cole's inquiry. She could not reason how her life was at all relevant to saving the souls that were lost, and quite honestly, preferred to keep the knowledge about her life to herself.

"We have to look normal," Cole replied in a hushed tone, not wanting to draw attention to their booth. "We can't just sit here staring at people, talking about them; we have to appear that we actually are here in an effort to enjoy ourselves. I know it'll feel like pulling teeth out for both of us, but we have to talk."

Phoebe bit her lip before nodding in understanding, seeing what he meant. However, that didn't mean he was going to allow him to direct the conversation, no, she was going to use the time to learn more about his duty as a ranger and how he helped people. "Before, you said Bethlar, what did you mean by that?" She questioned, having never heard that term before—was it what demons called other demons?

"That was my mother's name," Cole answered simply, writing a note about a woman that had just ran off from her husband after slapping him in the face with her white glove.

Phoebe looked over to her ex-husband with a confused expression on her face. "Your mother's name wasn't Elizabeth?" Phoebe cocked an eyebrow, having always thought that her name was Elizabeth Turner.

"That was her Earthly name, her human name," Cole replied, watching as the same waiter from before brought drinks over to another booth filled with sleazy-looking men, whom all had guns underneath their suit coats. "Like Cole Turner was the Earthly name of Belthazor. I was given the name Cole Turner by my father, where as my mother took the name Elizabeth herself since she was a pure demon straight from the Underworld."

Phoebe nodded slowly, seeing the reason behind taking the name Elizabeth. "Bethlar and Belthazor sound similar, is that a coincidence?" She inquired interestedly, truly wondering if there was a connection between the pair or if it was just a coincidence.

"No," Cole shook his head in the negative, flicking his eyes over to her. "Demons have a habit of naming their children after their own name, call it ego or whatever. My name…I mean Belthazor's name, sorry, was a homogenization of my mother's name, Bethlar, and her father's name, Benzor."

"Wait, your grandfather's name was Benzor?" Phoebe asked, quite shocked, having never heard anything about such a man. She recognized the name from somewhere, only vaguely, and she presumed she had seen it in the Book of Shadows one time or another when she was searching for another demon.

"His real name was, yes, but he went by Benjamin Hendricks in the human world when my mother was alive, not unlike my own father's name of Benjamin," Cole replied with a nod, and then with a shrug, added, "He might even be still alive, I have no idea. Either way, as Bethlar and Benzor proved, demons like to craft human names around their actual names, those that don't have a human parent to name them in the human world, that is."

"You don't know if he's still alive?" Phoebe asked, surprised by that, having expected Cole to work with his grandfather during his demon days. Since Belthazor was so powerful in his prime, she assumed that it would run in the family and that Benzor would be just as powerful, which would have created quite a deadly combo if they worked together.

"Familial relationships weren't encouraged by my mother; she said it was one of the things that made her weak," Cole said, as the lights dimmed and the cabaret show started, an uncommon thing as cabaret wasn't popular in the United States until much later than the time they were in. "My mother was vanquished around 1910, and I have had no contact with her demon family since then, especially not since I met you."

Phoebe took her eyes off of the show, men and women dancing as the drama played out, at what Cole had said. "How was she vanquished?" She asked, her voice neutral, having no compassion for her passing since she was an evil demon that did many horrible things during her lifetime.

"Ironically, her death taught me, I mean Belthazor again, a lot of what made Belthazor so feared, unfortunately." Cole mentioned, frowning slightly at the memories of all the evil things that he did during his life came flooding back to him. "She arrogantly believed that her power was greater than a nascent witch's, so when she was paid to kill the witch, she did not gather any information on him and attacked him blindly. In the end, he was the one witch in his generation that had the power of reflection, so when she threw an energy ball at him, he reflected it right back at her, vanquishing her on the spot. From that day forward, Belthazor gathered more information on a hit than he needed and…"

"Began using athames as his preferred method to kill," Phoebe finished for him, knowing exactly what he was going to say. She knew that Belthazor had a habit of killing targets with athames before he was vanquished, though she never learned about the reason behind that preference until then.

"That's right," Cole said, just as the waiter came over to the booth, presumably to take their drink order. He did not expound on that statement, instead going quiet, not wanting to the waiter to overhear them.

"Can I get you something, sir?" He questioned, staring at Cole and not once looking over at Phoebe.

"The house drink," Cole replied easily, knowing that it wouldn't matter and that he wouldn't be drinking it anyway. However, in an effort to make sure to blend in, he knew he needed to order something, anything, as he knew from experience that no one came to a club in this time and refused a drink.

"And for your misses?" He asked, still looking at Cole, as if Phoebe wasn't right there next to him.

"The misses will have the same," Phoebe growled, affronted by the way that she was ignored. She understood that it was the way of the world in the time that they were in, but even still, it was insulting to her.

The waiter cocked an eyebrow, his gaze flicking from Cole to Phoebe. "Very well," He nodded slowly, walking away to retrieve their order.

As the waiter was leaving, Cole turned his attention back to the club, where he watched many of the people go about their night. Many of them laughed and conversed with their friends, some watched the show with great interested, and a few other amorous couples embraced each other in the corners, but no one was doing anything out of the ordinary. To him, none of them seemed evil, nor did they seem to have any knowledge about the magical world, which was needed in order for someone to be a ghoul—evil spirits that used their magical knowledge to linger on in the world well passed their bodily death. His gaze moved over the rest of the club, up above where he saw empty balcony suites, to the stage, to even the decorations of the cabaret itself, searching for anything that seemed out of place.

He finally turned his attention back to Phoebe but then furrowed his brow before rising from the booth. "Come with me." He gestured for her to get up, and when she did, he grabbed her hand and walked out of the showroom and to the bar area that was in the entry way of the club itself.

"What's up?" Phoebe asked in a whisper, noticing Cole's odd look on his face; it was one of confusion, as if he had seen a ghost that wasn't supposed to be there.

"I sense…something." Cole started, his gaze moving around the area, seemingly searching for something or someone. "A demon, I think, though I'm not quite sure who." Then, as if following a hunch, he once more gestured for Phoebe to follow him, where they discretely entered a door on the opposite side of the bar area, which led to a hallway that ran behind the stage.

They followed the path, sneaking by a few female dancers and a few men who were hounding them, before entering the back stage area, which was empty except for a few props that went unused. There, watching the performance through the curtains, they saw a demon that had a monstrous form with a frightening appearance—vaguely humanoid, he had numerous appendages on his shoulders that Phoebe had no idea what they were or what purpose they served. "I think we found him," Phoebe said slowly, earning the attention of the demon, who jerked his head their way.

"Who are you?" He screeched angrily, turning around and facing them. "You aren't supposed to be here."

Without notice, Phoebe was thrown across the room with a flick of the demon's hand, where she crashed roughly against the wall, apparently unconscious. "Phoebe!" Cole yelled worriedly, fear and anger rising in his belly. He turned and faced the demon, his gaze narrowing as a sphere of swirling blue and white energy appeared in his hand. He threw the ball at the demon, which knocked him back a couple of feet as a result, the force greater than he had expected. Again and again, Cole threw balls of blue and white energy at the demon, and while the demon absorbed each blow, he was weakened with every one that made contact. Then, seeing Phoebe stirring in the corner of his eye, Cole quickly ran over to her, knowing that he needed more power to vanquish the demon for good. "I've weakened him," Cole said, shaking her awake, hoping she was lucid enough to help. "Say a spell, any spell."

Phoebe looked over at the demon, a spell quickly coming to her mind, one that was similar to a few other spells she had used in her time as a witch. "Demon of fire, cabaret bane; know only mire, feel only pain." Phoebe chanted, still on the ground, staring straight at the demon, hoping that it would suffice and the demon would be vanquished.

The demon screeched out in pain, a fire suddenly burning a hole through his heart, incinerating most of his torso. He continued to scream and twist in agony for a few more seconds before, with one last yell, his body blew up, embers falling down onto the ground. "Are you okay?" Cole inquired as he looked from the spot the demon once stood and down at her, trying to help the witch back to her feet.

"Yeah," Phoebe nodded, tenderly running a hand over her right shoulder, which had taken most of the fall. "Is that it? Does that mean the spirits can move on?" She asked, wondering if their mission was a success and they had saved the innocents.

"Let's go look," Cole said, walking out of the back room and into the bar area once more, inwardly hoping that his charges had moved on. It was intermission of the show, so many of the patrons were socializing in the lobby, allowing them to see the evidence that they were not finished yet and the vanquishing of the demon had no effect on the plight of the innocents. "I guess not," Cole sighed, noting the volume of spirits still there, presuming that all of them would move on, rather than just a few.

"Nothing's changed," Phoebe gasped, surprised by that fact. She thought for sure a demon had been behind it, and with his vanquish, everything would be right once again. .

"Not necessarily," Cole replied with furrowed brows, thoughts popping into his mind as he tried to figure out what to do next. "Before, they couldn't move on even if they knew about their death beforehand, now they might be able to do that. Or, probably more likely, there must be something else holding them back other than just the demon, and now with the demon dead, that something else will show itself."

"What do we do now?" She questioned him, flicking her gaze over to the taller man.

Cole looked around for a few moments, silently weighing his options, before he nodded, seemingly deciding something. "Go back into the show and study the audience once more," Cole said, walking through the doors and back over to their booth, which continued to sit empty without them.

They watched both the patrons and the show itself, trying to see something that seemed off or strange. Silently, they gazed about for nearly a half an hour, each noting whatever they found out of place. Then, suddenly, once the performance was over, a woman with grey skin and white hair appeared in the center of the club, a vicious look on her face as she scanned the area, searching for a soul. Cole's breath hitched in his chest when he saw her, and he immediately jumped to his feet as a result, ready to attack. "It's Necrosia," Cole growled angrily, his gaze not leaving the woman for a moment. "She's not causing this, but we can't let her do anything."

"Why not? Who is she?" Phoebe asked, looking over to the woman and noticing her non-human features. She assumed that the woman was a demon, though by the way Cole was acting, she didn't appear to be a normal demon.

Without answering, Cole took a step forward and summoned a sphere of blue energy into his hand. Then, sweeping his arm forward, he sent ball straight towards the woman, hoping to vanquish her right away. The woman, sensing something was awry, ducked out of the way, allowing the ball to fly harmlessly over her head. "Monsters!" Someone called out upon noticing the woman and the ball of energy. Instantly, most of the crowd began to rush for the doors in an effort to escape, fearful of the supposed monsters that were coming to attack them.

"Get them!" Another called out, pointing towards Cole and Phoebe, grabbing a bottle off of the table that was in front of him and trekking towards the pair. He had a mean countenance on his face, as if he was looking to injure or do something much worse to Cole or Necrosia.

"Turner!" Necrosia howled in rage, before being knocked to the ground by the stampeding crowd. Watching as Cole marched towards her, she teleported out in a gust of smoke, leaving the cabaret before she was vanquished, intent on existing for another day.

"Ah, Cole?" Phoebe whispered as her eyes jetted around the club, seeing that a few of the men were coming at them, pulling their guns out from their holsters, while a few more were brandishing chairs and bottles in an effort to harm them.

"I know," He replied quickly, reaching down and grabbing her shoulder, before sparkling them out, away from the danger that the club presented. "Well, that was close." Cole sighed, plopping down onto his bed, exhausted from the day's work. While he hadn't used his powers too much, he wasn't used to having to throw so many plasma balls in order to slay a foe.

Phoebe looked at Cole for a moment, watching as he relaxed, an anger brewing inside of her all the while. "What the heck was that?" Phoebe scowled, staring up at Cole with suspicion. "I thought you said that you didn't have demonic powers."

"I…don't?" Cole replied looking up at her with a confused expression on his face, not understanding where she was getting that from.

"What about that energy ball then?" Phoebe accusingly scathed, angry that Cole lied to her once again, this time about his powers. She was starting to trust him against her better judgment, but with this revelation, she knew that would never happen: he had lied to her after swearing to Piper that he did not have demonic powers anymore.

Cole sighed, shaking his head disappointedly, realizing that it was a misunderstanding. "It was a plasma ball, not an energy ball," He informed her, shaking his head at the idea that Phoebe truly was against him, even with proving that he was doing something good for once. "You know, made of ectoplasm and not composed of pure electrical energy. It burns to the touch for mortals, but decomposes anything from the ghostly plane, scattering their matter if used properly, which makes for quite a useful power in my line of work."

"I thought only ghosts had that power?" Phoebe raised an eyebrow, wanting to hear his answer as she started to suspect something. She had only come up against plasma balls once before, back when the ghost Olivia Callaway was attacking the Montanas and her family with the powerful spheres, but knew that ghosts and spirits covered themselves in ectoplasm in order to enter the earthly plane.

"No, those who are connected to the spiritual plane have that power, so long as they know how to use it," Cole replied with a shrug, not telling her that his history dealing with energy balls also allowed him to more easily grasp the use of plasma balls—forming plasma balls was natural for him, a relic of his demon past. "I'll be upfront, I have the power to sparkle, to throw plasma balls, to corporealize into the living realm, to turn invisible and intangible, as well as the powers of soul projection, sensing, and mediumship, all of which were bestowed upon me by my boss."

Phoebe cocked an eyebrow, wondering to whom he was referring by saying boss. "And who is that?" She asked inquisitively, presuming it wasn't an elder or the like, but instead someone much different, perhaps even higher on the chain of power.

"An angel," Cole answered vaguely, though it didn't seem like he was hiding anything. He truly only knew that his boss was an angel of a different kind than elders or whitelighters as she was never a human and instead was always a higher being, being born long before humanity could speak. "Don't ask me which one, though, because I have no idea."

Phoebe nodded tentatively, accepting of the fact that many higher beings were not very forthright and only told what was crucial to the matters at hand. "That teleporting you do, that's called sparkling?"

"Not really," Cole shrugged, having never known the name of it outside of the one he came up with on a whim. "I don't have a name for it; it's a mixture of a few teleportation powers that allow me to traverse all the planes that I need to traverse."

"Which planes are those?" Phoebe prodded, wanting to know more about his life, wanting to know what he did when she wasn't around. Did he go off on his own or was he working all hours of the day, not unlike Leo?

"Earth, the void, the ghostly plane, the spiritual plane, amongst a few others," Cole whispered, hoping his answer would suffice.

"Okay, then who is this Necrosia?" Phoebe inquired, dropping the boss topic and everything else related to his position until a later time, when Cole could perhaps answer it better. "Is she a demon? She seemed pretty familiar with you."

"She's a skeletal being that eats good spirits, feeds off of whatever life energy they have left and uses the energy garnered from it to survive." Cole replied with a frown, knowing that he would have to vanquish Necrosia sooner or later, an action that would prove difficult to undertake. "She and I come into contact with one another quite often, she's after the souls I'm trying to save, but I haven't been able to vanquish her just yet."

"Skeletal beings and soul collectors are who you fight?" She asked, raising her eyebrow, continuing the conversation with Cole—it was enjoyable, as neither was upset at the other, and Cole was upfront with her for once. "What are they exactly?"

"Soul collectors are former evil human magic users, like young warlocks that haven't been entirely stripped of their humanity and evil witches and sometimes firestarters, which become collectors in an effort to avoid their own soul's fate. They collect souls for demons in exchange for their resurrection. However, most demons just use them and the collector is rarely ever resurrected after the deal. As such, there aren't very many of them." Cole answered, as if lecturing his students about the issue, giving her a bit more information than she needed. "Skeletal beings, meanwhile, are demons that have been nearly vanquished and many of their powers have escaped them, but they have just enough life force to hang around and tether themselves to the earthly plane. Their home is in the spiritual plane, where their life energy is strongest and they can live on as neither a ghost nor a spirit, but something else entirely."

"I see," Phoebe nodded, inwardly impressed with Cole's knowledge. He was exceptionally intelligent, both as a human and a demon, so it did not surprise her much that he knew so many things about the magical world. What did surprise her, however, was his new ability to relay information without sounding condescending, which was a drastic difference from his time as Belthazor when his information came out with in a tone of arrogance. "So what do we do next?"

"Listen, Phoebe," Cole started, rubbing his forehead, trying to think of a way to get her to give up and go home. "This time loop takes six hours, thirty three minutes to complete. That's why I was in a rush before because I wanted to see the end and the start, without having to sit through the entire thing twice."

"We have to wait, I got it." Phoebe nodded in understanding, knowing that it would take a while for them to return to the club.

"I can't allow you to just wait, Phoebe." Cole sighed, shaking his head in the negative. It would take hours for the time loop to play itself out, not mere minutes where they could return almost instantly.

"I want to see this until the end, Cole." Phoebe sternly replied, standing her ground. She didn't spend the entire day with him just to leave before seeing the ending; she didn't put herself in the position to not see how it played out. "I want to see it, I want to help you, and there is nothing you can do to dissuade me."

Cole bit his lip, looking away from Phoebe for a moment. She could see on his face that he was weighing what she had said, trying to figure out a way around letting her stay around him. "Fine," Cole nodded, seemingly giving into her once more. "I'll pick you up at noontime tomorrow. Be ready then."

"And what are you going to do in the meantime?" She questioned, wondering what he would be up to while they waited.

"I'm going to go over my notes and see if I missed something, to try and figure out what is keeping them from moving on." Cole returned, pulling his notebook out and showing it to Phoebe.

Her eyes briefly flicked down to the leather-bound book, before they moved back up to the man in front of her. "Very well, what about Necrosia?" She inquired, intending on vanquishing her as soon as she could just as she would every other demon or demon-like entity.

"Leave her be for the time being." Cole scowled, angry at the thought of Necrosia still being alive. "She's nearly impossible to track when she hasn't eaten a soul in a while because she's so weak. I'll follow her when I save these souls."

"Look at you, playing the superhero." Phoebe whispered, starting to give into the realization that Cole was, in fact, good. While she didn't fully trust him just yet, it was becoming apparent to her that he wasn't putting on some act in an effort to weave his way back into her life.

"I try," Cole smiled sadly, conveying just how difficult it was for him to continually try to redeem himself from his evil past. "Come, I'll take you home for the night." Phoebe gripped his hand, and in a flash, they were gone, reappearing just outside of the front door of the manor.

Phoebe looked around at her environment, immediately noticing that they were on the porch. "Why here?" She asked, questioning why he wouldn't drop her off inside like he had done before.

"Because I realized I didn't have a right to be in your bedroom before." Cole answered honestly, hoping to shower that he really was not concerned about getting back together with her. "I'll see you tomorrow. Noontime, remember." He said, before disappearing in a flurry of grey orbs that sparkled upwards, leaving back to his home.

Once Cole's orbs had completely dissolved, Phoebe entered the manor, still dressed up, and walked into the living room, where she held voices. "A little dressed up, don't you think, Phoebe?" Leo questioned, noticing the middle sister at the entrance, where she stood looking between the couple.

"She had a date with Cole," Piper said, looking over to her husband with a large grin. She knew it wasn't a date, but that didn't mean she wasn't going to play around with her younger sister a bit.

"Ew," Phoebe shivered at the thought, the idea of her and Cole being together again creeping her out. "It was not a date, it was business."

"Business you spent an hour getting ready for," Piper reminded her, raising an eyebrow, wondering how Phoebe would defend herself from that.

"What are you two even still doing up?" Phoebe asked, changing the subject abruptly, not wanting to give it another thought. She stifled a yawn as she waited for their response, suddenly extremely tired from the day's events.

"We were just going to sleep," Piper said, rising to her feet with Chris held tightly in her arms. "I had to stay awake with Chris."

"Well, goodnight; if you need help, I'm here," Phoebe called out, walking up the stairs and going into her bedroom. Once she changed into her pajamas, she fell into bed and was asleep nearly instantly, all the while wondering what she would be in for the next day.

A/N: Only one more chapter left as for the brief foray into Cole's after school life. He'll be back to teaching once it is over.


	5. Back to School

**Charmed: Hanging with Mr. Turner**

Disclaimer: I don't own charmed, but the WB does.

Summary: AU After Season six- After Gideon's death, Leo has taken over his position as guardian of the school but has hired a headmistress to handle all school matters. When the headmistress hires a familiar new teacher, the Halliwells must investigate to see what this new teacher's plans are. Are they good? Or is there an ulterior motive here?

A/N: Just a quick story based around plots that I have written over the last few years, which are mostly about Cole and Phoebe. Review and tell me what you think!

**Chapter 5: Back to School**

Promptly at noontime the next day, the doorbell rang throughout the manor, signifying the arrival of someone. Paige answered the door distractedly, not thinking anything of it, and upon noticing that it was Cole, rolled her eyes and allowed him in. "Phoebe!" She called out, turning and walking away from Cole, not even saying a word to the man.

Silently, Cole waited by the door for Phoebe, awkwardly keeping his gaze on the stairs, not wanting anyone to think he was purposely encroaching into their home. "Ready?" Cole questioned once Phoebe appeared, feeling unwelcome and uncomfortable. Phoebe nodded and grabbed his hand, waving to Paige as she and Cole disappeared in a sparkling silhouette of white lights.

They arrived just as people were starting to shuffle into the club, apparently the start of the time loop. They took the same booth that they occupied the previous day and again ordered a round of drinks as they waited for the night to begin in full, wanting to appear as normal as they could. After the waiter returned with the drinks, Phoebe looked at Cole, inwardly thinking of something to say, remembering how Cole had suggested they make idle conversation the day before. "So Bethlar, your mother, she was full demon?" She settled as a thought popped into her mind, one that she wanted answered.

"Yes," Cole nodded with furrowed brows, wondering why she would ask such a question. "Her true form appeared similar to how Belthazor looked. She only appeared human because she performed a ritual that made her so, with the only traces of her demon heritage being her burning red eyes whenever she was overcome with powerful feelings like anger or impatience. A lot of her demon clan did that—that Inspector Rodriguez that killed your friend Andy being one of them."

"You're related to Rodriguez?" Phoebe exclaimed in a surprised tone, a sullenness to her voice as memories of Andy dying came to the forefront of her mind. As a childhood friend, Andy had a fond place in Phoebe's heart, though certainly not up to the level of Prue, who had taken his death the hardest.

"What?" Cole questioned, and then shook his head in the negative. "No, of course not, that's not what I meant. He and my mother were of the same demon race, that's all. I was not blood related to him in any way."

"What race is that?" Phoebe asked with a raised eyebrow, pushing the memories of Andy into the back of her mind as she recalled why she had asked the question in the first place.

"You don't want to know," Cole whispered, shaking his head, not daring to speak about his demonic heritage. "Just imagine the worst of the kind and you'll start scratching the surface of that race." Then, he turned his gaze over to her and cocked an eyebrow, a curious expression on his face. "You knew all this though."

"I knew she was full demon, but I've always wondered, which is what my question was leading to: Why did she marry your father?" Phoebe asked, wondering why a demon would do such a human thing when simply breeding with the man would have sufficed for her purposes.

"She knew the resources that he had, knew that he was a pretty intelligent man, and knew that a half-demon would perhaps be even more devastating to the side of good than a full demon could be," Cole answered honestly, fully aware that his father was a great man in numerous ways. "And as for marrying him, she wanted me to have full rights to his estate after his death. I don't think she planned on killing him like that, however, but that's the way it went down in the end."

Eventually, the show started and Cole and Phoebe spent nearly an hour watching the crowd, before a tall man took a seat in a balcony across from them. He continued to watch the man for a few moments, noticing that he sent away most of his surrounding gang, presumably wanting to be alone for the show. "That man wasn't here yesterday," Cole whispered, furrowing his brow in thought, trying to figure out if that was a clue or he was simply overreacting.

Phoebe moved her gaze up to the man that Cole was staring at, getting a good view of him—he was a human, with light brown hair, tan skin and a bushy mustache. "What does that mean exactly?"

"Potentially?" Cole whispered slowly, giving Phoebe a sideways look. "That he's aware that this is a time loop and goes about his day differently. Everyone else does the same thing over and over again—they don't know to do anything differently. When they arrive, they order the same drinks, dance the same dances, tell the same stories and laugh at the same jokes, and this continues until the loop ends, only to revive itself immediately after. This guy, however, isn't doing that, but instead acting as if he remembers that this is a loop and what he does has no effect."

"How is that possible?" Phoebe gasped, surprised at the revelation.

"Let's go and find out," Cole answered, getting out from the booth and walking with Phoebe over to the bar.

The bartender looked at them expectantly, assuming they were there to order a drink. "Can I help you?" He questioned, wiping down the bar with a white rag, before tossing it over his shoulder and preparing to make the drinks.

"Who is that man up there in that balcony?" Cole inquired, pointing up the balcony that held the man, who was seemingly watching the show, unaware of Cole's suspicion.

"That's Mr., I mean Count, Roget." The bartender answered quickly, a slight look of disdain on his face, though he hid it well. "He's the owner of this fabulous Cabaret Fantome. I take it this is your first time here."

"How'd you guess?" Cole smiled, not surprised by the statement, since Roget probably held himself out with great pristine to the public, but was very different behind closed doors. "And who were the guys with the guns surrounding him before?" Cole asked once more, trying to gauge whether his assessment of Roget was correct.

"What do you think," The bartender answered simply, before turning his attention to another couple that had come to order.

"What are you thinking?" Phoebe whispered, wanting to see if Cole was on to something.

"That someone signed a contract with that demon we vanquished last time." Cole answered her quietly, biting his lip slightly in thought. "And that bad soul is holding all of these good ones from moving on. Presumably, that someone is Count Roget."

"So what do we do? We can't just kill him, he's a human." Phoebe hissed, hoping Cole wasn't implying that they would have to vanquish a human being.

"He's already dead," Cole whispered back, walking over to the stairway that led to the balconies, hoping that he could confront Roget without drawing attention from the other club patrons. "All we have to do is get his soul out of here."

Silently, they walked up the stairs and over to the balcony that held their prey, before opening the door and creeping into the room. Roget sat in the large chair in front of them, his eyes firmly planted on the show below, where dancers where dancing and the piano in the corner was being played. "I saw you here a cycle or two ago," Roget said with his back to Cole and Phoebe, continuing to watch the show as if he was unperturbed by their entry. "I've never seen you before that."

"So you do remember," Cole claimed, his suspicions answered in the affirmative. If Roget remembered everything, that meant he was part of the time loop, and not an innocent in this entire thing.

"I've signed a contract in order to do just that," Roget said politely, rising to his feet and buttoning his jacket up. He turned and faced Cole and Phoebe, giving them a small, evil smile.

"A contract?" Phoebe questioned, confusedly, wanting to know how a contract could possibly allow him to remember the happenings of a time loop.

"With the demon Sargon," Roget answered, filling Cole and Phoebe in on the name of the demon that the pair had vanquished the day before. "The contract that I signed over a century ago in an effort to save myself from the certain demise that I knew would come."

"And you're the reason these poor souls can't move on," Cole whispered, understandingly, trying to figure out a plan of action in order to get Roget out from the time loop.

Roget smiled, looked over the show one last time, before quietly returning his gaze back to Phoebe, who was staring back at him warily. "Yes, I am, but you two just may be my way out," Roget yelled, running towards Phoebe and jumping into her body, possessing her completely. Immediately, Phoebe's eyes went dim and did not show the spark of life they normally did, instead they seemed different, changed by the evil of Roget. "Ah, ah, I wouldn't do that if I were you." Roget said in Phoebe's body, taking over her body entirely as he backed away from Cole, moving closer to the balcony wall that overhung the club. "If you take any further steps, I'll throw myself off of this balcony and kill her."

Cole stayed where he was, a look of hesitation on his face. "Unless what?" He questioned, wanting to know what he would have to do to protect Phoebe—he would do anything, even if he had to do something that he normally wouldn't.

"You take me out of here with that teleportation thing you did," Roget answered through Phoebe's lips. "Yes, I saw," Roget smirked, noticing Cole's surprised expression. "I watched you leave yesterday and enter today."

"Deal, I get you out while you let Phoebe go," Cole nodded, agreeing to it, knowing that everything was going as he wanted it to—he would get Roget out, the souls would move on, and Phoebe would be safe; how Roget would be leaving would be different than the count anticipated, however. "I'll need your hand for it to work, though." Cole said, reaching out, hoping Roget would fall for the trap that he had laid.

Tentatively, Roget reached out to Cole through Phoebe, grabbing the ex-demon's hand and placing it in his own. "No tricks," Roget warned, believing he was still in control of the situation.

"No tricks," Cole smiled easily, before quickly putting his other hand on Phoebe's forehead, surprising Roget with his swiftness. Immediately, Roget's soul was thrown out of Phoebe's body, freeing the witch from the possession that she had experienced.

Roget's eyes went wide when he realized what had happened, that he was back on his own, without any leverage for his escape. "How did you do that?" Roget gasped, returning to his feet, his gaze locked firmly on Cole.

"Good question," Phoebe whispered shakily, looking over to Cole, curious as to how he was able to do what he did. She had never seen someone eject a soul from a body before, and she doubted it was a very common power.

"I'm giving you one chance," Cole started, looking directly at Roget, anger clearly in his eyes. "Give up your evil ways and allow these people to move on, and I promise that I will help you. If not, I will forcibly remove you from this time loop myself and send you wherever fate has in store for you."

"I'm going nowhere except out of this place," Roget barked, intending on possessing Cole this time, realizing that he should have done that originally. He knew that Cole cared for Phoebe, having seen him protect her the day before, which was why he decided to possess Phoebe, instead of Cole, but now, realizing that Cole was a lot more powerful than he originally thought, he saw the folly of his decision.

"So be it," Cole nodded, before jumping towards Roget and throwing his right fist into Roget's stomach. Roget's eyes went wide, as he began to convulse; his soul screamed out in pain as it got smaller and smaller, contract in size until, with one final scream, Roget was gone and there was simply a ball of white energy that was being held by Cole.

Silently, Phoebe took two steps towards Cole, reaching out at the crystal ball-like sphere in the man's hands and tenderly running a finger over it. "What did you just do?"

"Soul projection," Cole said, allowing Phoebe to hold the ball. "You compact a soul and trap it so it can't escape. I don't like using this power; it makes me feel awful afterwards."

Phoebe nodded, before handing the ball back to Cole, who held it tightly in his left hand. "Thank you for saving me," Phoebe said, hoping to make Cole smile, seeing that he was still shaken up by using the power.

"You're welcome," Cole nodded, reaching his free hand out towards her to hold. "This should do it, let's go finish this off." Phoebe took his hand, before they both sparkled out, arriving back in Cole's home in Seattle. "I have to go for a second, but where I'm going, you can't come."

"I understand," Phoebe nodded knowingly, assuming he was going to a plane that mortals were not allowed, similar to the heavens. She didn't know if it was against the rules or if she was physically unable to go, but regardless, she didn't mind, as Cole saving was her still fresh in her mind. "I'll wait here for you."

"Thanks," Cole nodded, before disappearing in a flurry of wispy grey orbs. Looking around, she took a seat on the futon in the corner, not knowing when Cole would return. Fortunately, he reappeared a minute or two later, free of Roget's soul. "I usually bring them to Limbo, and allow them to be reincarnated, since the reincarnation wheel dictates where they'll go, there is some equity in that. This time, however, I brought him to the Ghostly Plane, and allowed fate itself to decide whether he is reincarnated or sent to a much hotter place, if you know what I mean."

"I do," Phoebe replied with a slight nod, understanding the reference. "So are they all safe now? I mean the other souls…" She questioned, wondering if they were done, whether they were successful.

"Let's go see," Cole said, touching her arm and sparkling them out once more.

They arrived back in the cabaret almost instantly, and immediately noticed that nothing had changed. There were still plenty of souls that had yet to move on, all still watching the show and having what appeared to be a good time. "So it wasn't the demon, nor the bad soul or ghoul keeping them here." Cole sighed disappointedly, his brows furrowed as he tried to think of what else to do. "If they can be saved at all, we better hope we can talk them into accepting their death before they experience the fire, because this very well may be the last time loop they experience since Roget is gone."

"Can I try?" Phoebe asked, looking up at him, hoping that he would allow her the opportunity to come up with a solution.

"Sure," Cole nodded, knowing that Phoebe was much better at giving advice and talking to people than he was. After all, she had made a career out of doing it via her "Ask Phoebe" column, while he made most people dislike him due to his gruff and matter of fact nature.

"Hello, everyone," Phoebe said, jumping up onto the stage and interrupting the show. The piano player quickly stopped, looking at Phoebe confusedly as she stared out at the crowd. "I have something to tell you, and it's not something that you will like, but trust me, I am here to help you." When she got everyone's attention, she continued, finding her voice grow more and more confident with each passing word. "Something terrible is going to happen, something awful that will harm you all. There will be a fire, one that cannot be changed or halted or stopped. It will happen, and unfortunately, you will all perish in the blaze, but you will all move on. Please, take this time to prepare yourself for it, so when the flames do take you to the next world, you can go there content and fulfilled, and most of all, happy. If you accept it, you will not feel any pain or agony or anything else, I promise you."

Cole listened to what Phoebe said, and when she was finished, he walked up onto the stage with her to see if it would be successful. "If that doesn't work, I'm not sure these souls can be saved," Cole admitted, watching as the patrons of the cabaret continued to go about their business, as if Phoebe hadn't mentioned their impending death. "Thank you for helping me."

They watched as many of the patrons continued their merriment, until, one by one, some of them started to wisp away, disappearing from the cabaret. "What is happening to them?" Phoebe inquired curiously, her eyes flicking over to Cole, wondering if he would have an answer for her.

"They're accepting their fate, admitted to themselves that they will die, and they've moved on." Cole answered, happy that the souls were moving on and he was successful in his mission, even if not all of them were saved. He saw the bigger picture, unlike many other people—any soul saved is a successful day. "Since they're already dead, it's not the act of physically dying that pushes them to the next world, but just their acceptance of death."

"Why are they so quick to accept it, though?" Phoebe asked, somewhat confusedly, realizing how she probably sounded like a lunatic to many of them with her mindless ramblings about a fire.

"They have a sense of deja vu, I would imagine, and many of them probably inwardly thought something weird has been going on, but couldn't remember it enough to speak out about it," Cole shrugged, not complaining if it was easier than many would envision it to be.

Eventually, the fire began to erupt, and only a few souls were still in the cabaret, many of them having accepted their fate the moment the flames appeared. "Why us?" One soul cried out, not understanding why they were the ones to die, why they had to experience death.

"I will protect you, I promise, I just need you to accept what is happening to you!" Cole called back as he watched the man nodded, closed his eyes, and after a moment of thought, wisped away. Hearing and seeing the conversation between Cole and the other patron take place over the roar of the fire, the remaining souls also did as Cole said, and within five minutes, Cole and Phoebe were alone in the burning club. "Let's go," Cole ordered, grabbing Phoebe and sparkling them both out of there before they too were injured by the fire.

"Did we do it?" Phoebe questioned, arriving outside of the manor, hoping there wasn't anything else they had to do to save the souls.

"Yes," Cole nodded in the affirmative, giving her a small smile. "All of the souls have been found and helped. That was much quicker than it would have been with just me alone, if I even would have been able to save them by myself. You were tremendous, thank you."

"We always did make a good team," Phoebe agreed with a smile as well, knowing that the pair complemented each other nicely, no matter the situation. "Thank you for showing me what you do."

"Thank you for helping," Cole nodded again, feeling the awkwardness mounting. He had no idea how to say goodbye, what to say, not wanting to cross a line that would make her feel uncomfortable.

"Don't be a stranger, Cole," Phoebe said, wanting him to know that if he needed help with a charge, he could come to her, that she would be willing to listen to his problems.

"I'll try not to," Cole nodded with a grin, happy that she would allow him to be him and not spy on him in an effort to ascertain whether or not he was evil. "Maybe I'll stop by in a few weeks, you know, to say hi."

"I'll be sure to answer and say hello back," Phoebe replied with a nod, not wanting to make the situation anymore awkward than it already was.

"I guess I'll be seeing you then." He smiled and gave her a small wave, before disappearing in a sparkling of grey orbs, leaving her alone with her thoughts.

"Good bye, Cole," Phoebe whispered, staring at the spot that Cole had stood just moments before. She pulled her sweater closer to her body and bit her lip, as her gaze moved up to the stars, wondering just where Cole had gone, where his life would lead him next. Sighing, she weighed what she knew about him, before turning and entering the manor, closing the door behind her with a soft click. "You were right, Piper," Phoebe said, walking further into the manor, admitting something to herself that she never thought she would ever do again. Piper looked at her sister expectantly, wondering what she was right about. "He is not evil."

The next week found Cole standing in front of his classroom once more, starting his lecture about warlocks and low-level demons. Unlike the previous two lectures, no Halliwell ever came, which made him both happy and sad at the same time, having grown accustomed to seeing one of them in the back. Shaking his head, he looked at his class of teenagers and gave them a smile, knowing that the day's lecture would probably hit home a bit to them and not wanting them to feel bad about it. "I trust you all had a good weekend," Cole grinned, taking off his coat and placing it around the chair behind his desk. "Should we go ahead with our planned lecture or do you want to change things up?"

"Go ahead with it," A female witch said, knowing why Cole was hesitant. She knew that learning about evil witches would probably be hard for her, having had a cousin that gave himself over to evil, but it was something that she wanted to know in order to better protect herself.

Cole ran his gaze over the class, and nodded, seeing they were all in agreement. "Warlocks," He started earnestly, deciding to dive right into the heart of the matter. "Are evil witches that break their wiccan rede and become demonic through their actions. They become entirely devoted to evil."

"So they have evil impulses from that point forward?" A boy questioned in the center of the class, his blond hair long and curly. "They're changed?"

"Yes," Cole nodded in the affirmative, knowing that warlocks were more prone to evil than their human counterparts. "When a witch kills another witch or gives themselves over to evil, their powers change and warp. They suddenly are able to blink when they become powerful enough, I mean when their inner pool of magical energy grows strong enough to blink, and perhaps their most notable quality, they are able to absorb the magical abilities of another when they kill the other being with an athame. It is not the athame itself that allows this, though there are charmed athames that allow such a thing, but it is instead the warlock him or herself that is able to do it. As such, the warlock needs to be in close proximity of the dead being at the precise moment his or her magic flits out and the soul moves on."

"Further, the most drastic change perhaps, is the fact that the witch sheds their mortality, and becomes immortal like demons: eternal, untarnished by age, unblemished by disease, unable to die by any natural cause." Cole continued, wanting to move through the content as quickly and thoroughly as possible. "That evil then twists them, and whatever children they do have, will be marked by it, therefore more likely to be evil, and show it in the ability to transform into a more monstrous appearance that enhances their powers. The older the warlock line, the more evil they become and the more monstrous their appearances are, until, eventually, the line is very hard to distinguish from demons themselves. They literally become demons in all but name."

"So they're not human any more?" A female shivered, a big disgusted at the idea of a warlock transforming into a demon-like being and leaving behind their humanity. It was something that she did not understand, could not understand, why anyone would willingly let that happen to them—it was unnatural in her opinion.

"That is sort of correct," Cole nodded, biting his lip, thinking about how he would better explain it. "They do not bleed as normal humans would, but they're not entirely demonic yet. It takes generations for that process to happen—they're far from normal human, though, don't misconstrue that."

A hand suddenly went up in the back of the room, and Cole pointed to the student, allowing him to speak. "What is blinking?" He questioned with a cocked eyebrow, going back to something Cole had previous said.

"It's the ability to teleport in the blink of an eye that is customary for warlocks," Cole answered quickly, the information on the tip of his tongue as he had planned to lecture on the power long before the question came up. "Originally a witch power that has since become almost exclusive to warlocks, blinking is the ability to appear or disappear in the blink of an eye. It is with little sound and without any other visible effect, allowing the warlock to sneak up at anytime without a person being the wiser of it. Instead, the being just appears, as if he or she had always been there, had always been present. Being one the fastest teleportation methods, if not the fastest, it is quite useful when used in battle, allowing the being to quickly evade attacks and promptly return counterattacks without forewarning. We'll go into a bit more detail later on in the year, when I inform you on some of the more common powers that demons possess."

The students all nodded as they took notes, a brief quiet overcoming the classroom as if the students' curiousity had been quenched. Then, as swiftly as the silence came, it ended with a question from a girl in the corner. "You say that warlocks shed their mortality, but the implication there is that dark or evil witches are still very much mortal, am I right?"

"Correct," Cole agreed, impressed with the teenager's astuteness. "Dark witches, while they can live a tad longer than good witches, still age like a normal human would. Dark witches are few and far between however, as many witches decide to be good after the mythical window of opportunity passes."

There was a shiver throughout the classroom, as if memories of the mythical window all flooded their minds at the same time. "The window, when will it specifically happen for us?"

"For some it maybe already has," Cole whispered, as the students all looked at one another confusedly. "It depends entirely on the person."

"But generally?" The boy that asked the original question prodded.

"It depends on when your powers came to you, how old you are, how powerful you are, what your destiny has in store, a lot of different factors," Cole lectured softly, seeing the stir the topic was causing. "I would suggest a few weeks after you graduate, though, if I was speaking in generalities. When you're 18 or 19, and starting your life out as a young adult, is when it usually happens, if you have had your powers since you were a child. That's what happens for ninety percent of witches."

"And if a witch chooses evil, they then become a dark witch?" A student reiterated, wanting to make sure he understood the difference.

"That is correct." Cole nodded in agreement. "They are evil, but not as evil as warlocks—or rather, not as irredeemable as warlocks to be more precise. They can still feel love and compassion, and they're still very much mortal and age as such, they just use their powers selfishly. Since they did not take the rede into their heart and come under the dominion of the Elders, they are exempt from the personal gain rule, which prevents good witches from using their powers in a personal manner. Dark witches are not out for other witches powers, but simply just out for themselves, unlike warlocks, who cross that line and kill witches for their magic."

"You mentioned witch practitioners last week, can you explain them more?" Tag, a boy that had asked Cole a question at the end of the previous class questioned, wanting to go into more depth about the difference between witches and witch practitioners.

"They are wiccans that have no natural active or passive powers," Cole started with a shrug, knowing that it wasn't a very detailed topic. "They are simply attuned to the magical world and have the witch gene inside of them which allows them to tap into the magic of the Earth itself to perform some spells. They, however, have no active powers or pool of magic inside of themselves, unlike magical witches like all of you."

"Can they brew spells?" Tag asked once more.

"The more knowledgeable ones, yes," Cole agreed, knowing that witch practitioners brewing potions was not unheard of in the magical community. "They can even scry under the right circumstances."

"Magic of the Earth itself?" A girl laughed, believing it to be preposterous. Then, seeing Cole's serious expression, she paused and furrowed her brows. "The Earth is magical?"

"Very much so, there are pockets of magical energy all around the Earth." Cole answered as a rueful smile took shape on his face, instinctively remembering his evil days when he attempted to win back Phoebe through the shadow inside the nexus under the Halliwell manor. It wasn't one of his proudest moments, but regardless, it was part of his past and something he would not forget. "Like a nexus, a direct mystical hotspot of elemental energy that is found within a pentagram of all of the five elements—earth, wood, fire, water, and metal—which is capable of being tapped into in order to enhance magical powers, whether good or evil."

Cole allowed the students to talk amongst themselves for a few minutes as he took a drink from his water bottle, quenching his thirst. Eventually, they all settled down, and one student raised his hand, seemingly having a question that many of the other students wanted to be answered. "Why do warlocks want witch powers? Why don't they kill demons for their powers?"

"Because that's illegal in the Underworld, punishable by death," Cole chided, having witnessed numerous warlocks perish for vanquishing a demon for their powers. It was why the great warlock Devlin's plan to take over the Underworld was so risky a few years prior, as Devlin and his faction risked death simply by accumulating the necessary demonic powers that were needed in order to ascend to the throne. "But additionally, they're more used to witch powers than they are demon powers, making those powers much easier for them to use and quicker to master."

"Aren't they the same?" A voice questioned curiously, confused by what Cole meant by that.

"No," Cole shook his head in the negative, unsurprised that they were confused by the topic. Not many people in the magical world understood that powers and abilities were different, making some more special and important than others. "Powers are different, even if they're the same kind of power."

"Huh?" Many of the students said, entirely confused by the statmenet.

Cole bit his lip, looking down at the floor, trying to think of a way to better explain it. "Does anyone here have the power of telekinesis?" Cole asked, looking around at the class, searching for someone that was gifted with the power. "When I was looking at the class roster, I didn't check any of your powers because I feel you all deserve to learn as much as you can, regardless of your level of power or the abilities that you possess."

"I do, Mr. Turner," A girl named Sara said, shooting her hand into the air.

"Good," Cole smiled, picking up his bag and placing it on top of his desk. "You see this bag? I want you to move it with your mind. Lift it up a few feet and then put it back down."

"Okay…" Sara nodded tentatively, not really knowing where this was going. She lifted her hands up as the bag rose into the air and hovered a few feet above the desk, hovering in midair for a few moments.

"Ah, ah, right there, do you see it? Do you see what she's doing? She's channeling her power through her hands." Cole lectured, watching as the bag was gently placed back down on the desk. "Did you always channel your powers through your hands?"

"No," Sara shook her head in the negative, recalling how she used to only be able to use her powers by using her eyes. "When I was little, I could only perform my powers by looking at the object I wanted to move. I'm still only learning to channel it through my hands."

"But you feel your powers growing, right?" Cole prodded, hoping she would say that she did feel her powers growing. He was using her as an example to show the difference between demonic magic and the magic possessed by human witches, how incongruent one was with the other.

"Yes," She whispered, inwardly wondering how he knew that.

"Exactly," Cole grinned with an air of triumph around him. "The witch, or good magic rather, power of telekinesis is first channeled through the eyes and then as it grows in strength, the user can channel it through his or her hands. The demonic power of telekinesis meanwhile is first channeled through the hands and then as it grows in strength, the user can channel it through the eyes. So even though the powers are the same in nature, in practice they're actually quite different."

Just then, the bell rang, signaling the end of the class for the day. "Well, that's all, next week we'll be learning about low-level demons and then move on to darklighters. Have a great weekend!" Cole called out over the bustling of the students, before turning and gathering his things up to leave. Once his bag was packed, he tossed it over his shoulder and began walking to the door, where he turned off the lights of the class and exited into the hall, a happy smile on his face, knowing that he was living his life without any baggage for the first time since he was born. As he made his way down the hall, he gave a great sigh of relief as he realized that his future was his own to decide, to do whatever he wanted with it. He was finally free.

A/N: This could be the end, I'm not sure. I have more classes planned, but there would be no subplot, so it depends on how this is received to decide if I will continue this or not so review and tell me what you think!


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